Skype founders quit

The founders of Skype, Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, have resigned as executives of the Web-based phone firm, reports BBC News.

eBay has announced it will cut up to $1.2 billion off the potential price it agreed to pay for Skype. In September 2005, eBay agreed to pay $2.6 billion for Skype and make further payments of up to $1.7 billion, based on Skype meeting various targets.

Zennstrom, who was chief executive of Skype, will become non-executive chairman and is expected to spend more time on other projects. eBay said it might pay Skype shareholders another $195 million, but only if it sells 50% or more of Skype before the end of March 2008.

The office of the New York attorney general (AG) has stepped up its warnings against social networking site Facebook, with a representative from the office saying the company may face a consumer fraud charge for misrepresenting how safe the site is for minors, reports News.com.

Facebook claims its closed-site model makes the service safer for minors than other social networks, and that privacy and harassment concerns receive prompt responses.

The attorney general's office says those assertions simply are not true. "We expect an immediate correction eliminating the dangers exposed by our investigation," AG spokesman Jeffrey Lerner told the AP. Facebook confirmed it has not yet issued an updated statement to reflect the newer threat of a consumer fraud charge.

France Telecom has sold its Orange NL operation to rival operator T-Mobile for 1.33 billion euros, moving itself out of the Netherlands market and leaving T-Mobile with hoped-for savings of a billion euros once it combines the networks over the next six years, reports The Register.

Consolidation in the Dutch market has been a long time coming. Five network operators for a population of less than 17 million is unsustainable and, back when O2 was selling off its own Dutch limb, most observers expected one of the other operators to grab the customer base and merge networks.

Orange is the fourth-largest operator in the Netherlands, while T-Mobile is the third, but even when combined, the company will only have 4.8 million customers. T-Mobile also gains Orange's half-million or so broadband customers.

Frontline, a start-up wireless company, has called on the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to sanction or possibly bar Verizon from bidding in an upcoming spectrum auction, for a violation of lobbying rules, reports the Washington Post.

Verizon has attempted to circumvent rules prohibiting it from lobbying the FCC behind the scenes to change conditions on the upcoming 700MHz auction, while, at the same time, challenging the conditions in court, alleged Frontline Wireless, a likely competing bidder in the auction.

Verizon "wants to have it all", Frontline's lawyers wrote in their filing with the FCC. "Verizon's tactic of making up procedures to suit its own needs should be firmly rejected." A Verizon Wireless spokesperson declined to comment on the Frontline filing.