Niklas Zennström may have sold Skype to eBay in 2005 but that wasn't the end of the story for this serial entrepreneur. His latest venture has pushed him back up the Agenda Setters rankings.
Because VoIP technologies are now part of everyday life for even the least tech-savvy internet user - no doubt to the consternation of the big telecoms providers - the Swede is now looking at shaking up another industry: television.
Last year with Janus Friis, Zennström founded Joost, a video-on-demand service, which promises to bring together TV and the interactive power of the internet and has already won plaudits for its interface and peer-to-peer architecture.
Previously known by its code name, The Venice Project, the start-up has already signed a number of content deals with big boys such as Viacom and CBS as well as with small independent production companies - and recently revealed it has a million users.
In May it picked up $45m in funding from venture capital firms. Industry watchers are already warning that broadcasters and pay-TV operators will come under increasing pressure from virtual networks, such as Joost.
If that wasn't enough, as Skype CEO, and co-founder back in 2003, Zennström remains responsible for setting strategy and overseeing the business around the world.
Before Skype, Zennström founded P2P software firm Joltid, and file-sharing software company Kazaa - which means he's got a track record that should have competitors quivering in their boots.
Position
Year
Plot position against other Agenda Setters
Take a walk down memory lane - and find out who made the agenda setters poll in years past
"Blogging's definitely got to the point where there're enough mainstream consumers watching it for the top bloggers to be regarded as agenda setters."
Michael Smith,
Agenda Setters panellist
"Open source gets more important rather than being something that will get squeezed out of the enterprise."
Simon Briskman,
Agenda Setters panellist
The world's 50 most innovative companies BusinessWeek
The world's 100 most powerful women Forbes.com
Chron 500 - The San Francisco Bay Area's top public companies San Francisco Chronicle
100 fastest growing tech companies Business 2.0
Content featuring Niklas Zennström
In addition, the settlement brings Skype and Joltid founders Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis, into the investor group. Zennström and Friis will take a 14 per cent stake in Skype, in return for contributing Joltid software and "significant capital...
Niklas Zennström is best known as co-founder of Skype - the voice over IP internet telephony service that has been enabling the wired world to talk for free since 2003 and, more recently, to indulge in video calling too.
Instead, Skype founders Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis hung onto the technology via their new company, Joltid, which then licensed it to Skype. Skype is trying to develop new peer-to-peer technology to replace the code it currently uses, due to...
Niklas Zennström Skype s board of directors won strong backing from shareholders at its annual meeting on Friday, with Jerry Yang, the company's embattled CEO, receiving 85 per cent of the vote in his favour.
Niklas Zennström Skype Infosys CEO Kris Gopalakrishnan is an unassuming man, who doesn't use his position to be imposing. It's less important for him to be the company's controller than to look like he is.
Niklas Zennström BT's CEO Ben Verwaayen is to step down as CEO on 31 May 2008 after more than six years at the telco where he championed its push into broadband and helped it dodge regulator Ofcom's axe.
Copyright © 2008 CBS Interactive Limited. All rights reserved. Top of page
RSS Feeds