Skype Founders Sue Former Joost CEO Over Leaked Documents

Two Skype founders and current owners of Joost and Joltid have filed a lawsuit against former Joost CEO Michael Volpi, claiming breach of fiduciary duty. The lawsuit could hamper online auctioning site eBay from closing a deal that would sell a two-thirds stake in eBay to private investors.

The suit, which was filed on Friday in a Delaware court by Skype founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, both of whom currently own Joost and Joltid, accuses former Joost CEO Volpi and Index Ventures Management of illegally accessing confidential company information in order to make a deal to sell a 65 percent stake in eBay to private investors for $1.9 billion.

Index agreed to buy a stake in Skype from eBay, which purchased Skype in 2005 for $2.6 billion. The online auction company was possibly seeking to reclaim some assets by selling stock in the VoIP company.

Altogether, the lawsuit alleges that Volpi leaked trade secrets from Joost during his time as CEO, constituting a breach of fiduciary duty, interference with prospective business advantage, misappropriation of trade secrets, breach of confidence and civil conspiracy. The new lawsuit seeks an injunction for return of the confidential documents and prevents them from using misappropriated trade secrets to further business ventures.

"The suit seeks an injunction requiring the defendants to return to the plaintiffs all documents and files containing confidential information that the lawsuit alleges was misappropriated from Joost, and enjoining the defendants from making any use of the alleged misappropriated trade secrets, among other things," the plaintiffs said in a statement.

Friday's lawsuit is just the latest in the ongoing saga between eBay and Skype. Swedish firm Joltid also filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against eBay, as well as Skype buyer Silver Lake Partners, claiming copyright violations over licensing for its software. Specifically, Joltid created the fundamental engine behind Skype's operations -- a peer-to-peer technology called "global index" -- which Skype used to route calls over the Web. EBay also licensed "global index" from Joltid, which is owned by Skype founders.

Joltid's lawsuit against eBay on Wednesday also named venture capital firm Index Ventures, where Volpi has been a partner since he stepped down as Joost CEO in July.

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