which develops skype . for the instant messaging client see skype . skype technologies s.a.r.l type subsidiary industry telecommunications founded 2003 ; 13 years ago 2003 founder janus friis & niklas zennstr m headquarters luxembourg city luxembourg redmond washington united states area served worldwide key people qi lu 1 executive vice president application and services group microsoft gurdeep singh pall corporate vice president skype and lync products skype voip im and video chat client for multiple platforms revenue us 2 billion 2013 est. 2 number of employees 500 2010 parent microsoft corporation website skype.com skype technologies s.a.r.l also known as skype software s.a.r.l skype communications s.a.r.l skype inc. and skype limited is a telecommunications company headquartered in luxembourg city luxembourg and redmond washington united states whose chief business is the manufacturing and marketing of the instant messaging computer software program skype and various internet telephony services associated with it . 3 microsoft corporation purchased the company in 2011 and it has since then operated as their wholly owned subsidiary ; 4 however the software continues to be licensed and operated by skype technologies . the company is a soci t responsabilit limit e or sarl equivalent to an american limited liability company . skype a voice over ip voip service was first released in 2003 as a way to make free computer to computer calls or reduced rate calls from a computer to telephones . support for paid services such as calling landline mobile phones from skype formerly called skypeout allowing landline mobile phones to call skype formerly called skypein and now skype number and voice messaging generates the majority of skype s revenue . ebay acquired skype technologies s.a. in september 2005 and in april 2009 announced plans to spin it off in a 2010 initial public offering ipo . 5 in september 2009 6 silver lake andreessen horowitz and the canada pension plan investment board announced the acquisition of 65 % of skype for 1.9 billion from ebay valuing the business at 2.75 billion . skype was later acquired by microsoft in may 2011 for 8.5 billion . as of 2010 skype was available in 27 languages and has 660 million worldwide users an average of over 100 million active each month 7 and has faced challenges to its intellectual property amid political concerns by governments wishing to control telecommunications systems within their borders . contents 1 history 1.1 two original founders depart new ceo and the ebay years 1.2 independence and silver lake 1.3 microsoft subsidiary 2011 present 2 palo alto office 3 legal issues 3.1 p2p licensing dispute lawsuit and ipo offering 4 other intellectual property challenges 4.1 streamcast lawsuit 4.2 idt lawsuit 4.3 gpl lawsuit 5 political issues 5.1 china 2005 5.2 france 2005 5.3 united states calea 2006 5.4 united states transparency and prism 2013 6 see also 7 references 8 external links history edit skype was founded in 2003 by janus friis from denmark and niklas zennstr m from sweden 8 having its headquarters in luxembourg with offices now in tallinn tartu stockholm london palo alto prague 9 and redmond washington . the skype software was originally developed by estonians ahti heinla priit kasesalu and jaan tallinn who together with janus friis and niklas zennstr m were also behind the peer to peer file sharing software kazaa . 10 in april 2003 skype.com and skype.net domain names were registered . in august 2003 the first public beta version was released . one of the initial names for the project was sky peer to peer which was then abbreviated to skyper . however some of the domain names associated with skyper were already taken . 11 dropping the final r left the current title skype for which domain names were available . 12 in september 2005 skypeout was banned in china . 13 in october of the same year ebay purchased skype 14 for 2.6 billion . 15 in 2011 the ars technica estimated the purchase price at 3.1 billion not 2.6 billion . 16 in december 2005 videotelephony was introduced . 17 a skype phone manufactured by smc network in april 2006 the number of registered users reached 100 million . in october skype 2.0 for mac was released the first full release of skype with video for macintosh and in december skype announced a new pricing structure with connection fees for all skypeout calls . 18 skype 3.0 for windows was released . 19 in 2006 a feature called skypecasting was introduced as a beta . it allowed recordings of skype voice over ip voice calls and teleconferences to be used as podcasts . skypecasting remained in beta until it was discontinued on 1 september 2008 . skypecasts hosted public conference calls for up to 100 people at a time . unlike ordinary skype p2p conference calls skypecasts supported moderation features suitable for panel discussions lectures and town hall forums . skype operated a directory of public skypecasts . 20 throughout 2007 updates 3.1 3.2 and 3.5 added new features including skype find skype prime send money which allowed users to send money via paypal from one skype user to another video in mood inclusion of video content in chat call transfer to another person or a group and auto redial . skype 2.7.0.49 beta for mac os x released adding availability of contacts in the mac address book to the skype contact list auto redial contact groups public chat creation and an in window volume slider in the call window . during several days in august skype users were unable to connect to full skype network in many countries 21 because of a skype system wide crash which was the result of exceptional number of logins after a windows patch reboot patch tuesday . 22 in november there was controversy when it was announced that users allocated certain london 020 numbers specifically those beginning 7870 would lose them after negotiations with the provider of this batch of numbers broke down . 23 by early 2008 the tumultuous ownership relations between the founders and ebay had resulted in significant leadership churn with a succession of skype presidents including niklas zennstr m rajiv dutta alex kazim niklas zennstr m again and henry gomez all holding that title at various points between 2005 and 2007 . the business had failed to meet certain earn out targets growth was decelerating product development had slowed significantly and in october 2007 ebay took a 1.4 billion impairment on the value of skype admitting it had overpaid and now valuing the company at about 2.7 billion . 24 in october 2008 analysis revealed tom skype the chinese version of skype run by tom online sends content of text messages and encryption keys to monitoring servers . 25 two original founders depart new ceo and the ebay years edit for the six months after the departure of zennstr m and friis michael van swaaij led the company as interim ceo until the appointment of josh silverman in february 2008 . 26 silverman was widely viewed as bringing in stability to skype after a tumultuous phase that followed the exit of the two skype co founders . 27 under silverman s two and a half year tenure the company focused its product efforts around video calling ubiquity gaining high penetration on smartphones pcs tvs and consumer electronic devices building tailored offerings for enterprise customers and diversifying revenue through subscriptions premium accounts and advertising . in advancing this strategy skype released many new products substantially revamping its flagship windows software 3.8 4.0 and its macos and linux software ; while introducing new software products for smartphones and consumer electronics . in 2009 skype 4.0 was released featuring full screen high quality video calling . 28 the linux client was updated and an iphone application was launched which topped the charts with over 1m downloads in its first two days . 29 skype also announced the launch of its software for the android platform . 30 during this period skype also discontinued lesser used services such as support for the skype me presence indicator which meant that a user was interested in receiving skype calls from a non contact . skype also discontinued its skypecast service without explanation and added internal monthly and daily usage caps on their skypeout subscriptions which had been advertised as unlimited . skype also discontinued its dragonfly feature a community generated yellow pages product and other features which were deemed to be under performing or a distraction to management . many users and observers had commented on the high rate of dropped calls and the difficulty reconnecting dropped calls . updates including versions for the sony psp hand held gaming system version 2.0 for linux with support for video conferencing . as part of its efforts to diversify revenues skype launched in april 2008 skype for sip a service aimed at business users . at that time around 35 per cent of skype s users were business users . 31 in targeted premium products to consumers skype launched new monthly premium subscriptions products in may 2010 . 32 marketing efforts were also re vamped with a particular focus on innovative partnerships with tv broadcasters to integrate skype into their programming . the oprah winfrey show began using skype regularly to host video calls between oprah and her viewers at home culminating in a show dedicated exclusively to the wonders of skype where the skype are you aired first in may 2009 . 33 skype also became commonly used by network news stations around the world as a cost effective replacement for sending satellite trucks and enabling fast response from citizen journalists . skype was also integrated into scripted tv programming such as californication ; and in the seventh season of the u.s. syndicated version of the british game show who wants to be a millionaire in a new ask the expert video chat lifeline . these efforts led to accelerating growth of skype s connected users and paying users and by 2009 skype was adding about 380 000 new users each day . 34 by the end of 2009 skype was generating around us 740 million in revenue . 35 in january 2010 josh silverman was recognized for his accomplishments at skype by being named first runner up in the techcrunch crunchies award for best ceo beaten only by mark pincus of zynga . 36 independence and silver lake edit building on the revitalization which had begun in 2008 ebay announced in april 2009 plans to spin off skype through an initial public offering in 2010 . clarification needed 37 38 39 in august joltid ltd. filed a motion with the u.s. securities and exchange commission seeking to terminate a licensing agreement with ebay which allowed ebay and therefore skype to use the peer to peer communications technology on which skype is based . if successful this could have caused a shutdown of skype as it existed and made an ipo challenging to execute . 40 in september ebay announced the sale of 65 per cent of skype to a consortium of index ventures and silver lake partners . 41 early in september skype shut down the extras developer program . 42 in november skype settled the joltid litigation and acquired all skype technology in exchange for equity in the company 43 and ebay completed the sale of 70 % of skype to a consortium comprising silver lake partners joltid cppib and andreessen horowitz for approximately 2 billion valuing the entire business at us 2.75 billion . 44 in may 2010 skype 5.0 beta was released with a capacity to support group video calls involving up to four participants . also in may skype released an updated client for the apple iphone that allowed skype calls to be made over a 3g network . originally a 3g call subscription plan was to be instituted in 2011 but skype eventually dropped the plan . 45 rounding out its