Skype

Skype which is a global telephony company and is helping revolutionize the telecoms industry, has been started by Niklas Zennstrom. He is a Swedish citizen and 39 years old. He has a dual degree in business and MSc Engineering Physics, computer science from Uppsala University in Sweden. He spent his final year at University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He is also famous for creating "KaZaA" which was a peer-to-peer (p2p) program. The idea behind the Skype is that people shouldn't pay extra for telephone calls when they have already bought devices like computer. Using Skype software, call rates are reduced for users and that's why everyday 150000 people are joining to Skype users. Skype free software has been downloaded more than 165 million times since it was introduced in 2003 and just in 2005, it has about $60 million income for company.

Today's reports claim that eBay may pay between $2bn and $3bn for Skype. In 2003, when Niklas wanted to start Skype, it was difficult for him to convince sponsers to support his company. Perhaps people hardly could believe that in less than 3 years it would become a multi-billion dollar company!

Niklas Zennstrom