One of the more lurid stories of the VoIP business has come to a close, as U.S. District Court Judge Florence-Marie Cooper has dismissed the $4.1 billion antitrust lawsuit filed by StreamCast Networks against VoIP service provider Skype, eBay and more than a dozen defendants. It certainly made for great reading with allegations of racketeering, antitrust and all the imagery that goes along with. It even had an intrepid sleuth in Andy Abramson, digging through court filings to grab a copy of the suit before the news broke.
The story broke at the end of March last year. Later in May, StreamCast amended their complaint, adding eBay to the suit, and demanding $4.1 billlon in damages. The core of StreamCast’s complaint was a claim that they had right of first first refusal in the event that the Skype technology was sold elsewhere. In effect, they were asking the court to undo the Skype sale to eBay.
It had us all asking how much due diligence eBay had done on their purchase. After all, these were pretty heavy duty allegations!
Is the story over now? The judge rejected all the claims, but StreamCast’s attorneys have said they may appeal. Andy Abramson, who broke the story originally, certainly doesn’t see this as the end, but it seems an up-hill battle from this point forward. Â
Alec Saunders is the Vice President of Developer Relations for BlackBerry maker Research in Motion. This is his personal blog, with his personal viewpoints. Prior to this Alec was the CEO and co-founder of Calliflower — the easiest way to hold a meeting, online, on a conference call, or on the go. A double-decade veteran of product management and marketing, he spent nine years at Microsoft where he helped launch Windows 95, the first two versions of Internet Explorer, the Universal Plug and Play initiative, the push into home markets, opt-in email marketing and what might well go down in history as the very first direct email list ever.
