Tag Archives: Mike Volpi
Big Switch Raises $13.75 Million In A First Round Of Funding
Big Switch Networks has raised $13.75 million in a first round of funding. Big Switch Networks is working on building a platform that will bring virtualization and a cloud architecture to enterprise networks. Four new directors will be joining the board at Big Switch Networks as a result of the funding: Mark Leslie, Bill Meehan, Shirish Sathaye, and Mike Volpi. The investors in this round include Index Ventures and Khosla Ventures. [San Jose Business Journal]
Mobile Social Network Path Raises $8.5 Million
Path is a San Francisco based mobile social networking company that has raised $8.5 million in funding led by Kleiner Perkins and Index Ventures. Digital Garage and First Round Capital also participated in this round. Chi-Hua Chien of Kleiner and Mike Volpi of Index will join the board of directors. This brings Path to a total of $11.2 million in funding. Path used to be completely private where people could only post pictures and videos to friends. These files could not be shared on Twitter or Facebook. Now people can e-mail photos and videos to contacts through the app. Path is currently working on building an Android app.
Sonos Raises $25 Million, Led By Index Ventures
Sonos is a Santa Barbara based wireless music company. They sell devices that can wireless play music around your house using an iPhone, iPod, FM tuner, or other music player. Sonos also has an iPhone app that allows you to control the music player controls. The company has raised $25 million in recent funding, led by Index Ventures. Mike Volpi has joined the board of directors as a a result of the funding. [VentureBeat]
Categories Index Ventures, Mike Volpi, Sonos
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Skype Lawsuit Gets Resolved, Index Ventures Booted Out Of Sale
As you may remember, two months ago eBay was planning to spin Skype into an independent company. The buyers who would take control of Skype from eBay included Marc Andreessen, Ben Horowitz, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Index Ventures, and Silver Lake. However the founders of Skype interrupted the sale by claiming intellectual property infringement on the VoIP technology. The original founders of Skype started a company called Joltid. And Joltid said that they were suing eBay.
The lawsuit has now been settled. eBay will be selling a majority ownership of Skype to the aforementioned investors for $2 billion. Joltid will be licensing the technology to the new Skype buyers. Skype founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis will get 14% ownership in Skype as a result. Both Friis and Zennstrom will also make a “significant’ investment in Skype too. eBay will retain 30% in Skype and the rest of the investor group will get 56%.
Friis and Zennstrom also filed a lawsuit back in September against former Joost CEO Mike Volpi. Friis and Zennstrom founded Joost several years ago and sued Volpi because of breach of fiduciary duty. Volpi is currently a partner with Index Ventures which is one of the companies buying Skype. As a result, Index Ventures is no longer one of the buyers in Skype. The acquisition is expected to close by the end of this year.
Joost and Joltid Limited Files A Lawsuit Against Mike Volpi and Index Ventures Shortly After Skype Sues eBay
At the beginning of the month, eBay announced that they would be selling Skype to several buyers. The buyers included Silver Lake, Index Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. That sale has been interrupted not by Kanye West, but by the founders of Joost and Skype.
The founders of Joost and Skype started another company called Joltid. Joltid is suing eBay on the basis that Skype is infringing on their technology at least $100,000 times per day. eBay denies the allegations. But Joltid co-founders Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom says that their company holds the intellectual property rights to VoIP applications including Skype. Joltid filed the lawsuit against eBay two weeks after the announcement was made that Skype would be sold to the aforementioned buyers.
Today another lawsuit was filed by the Joltid, Skype, and Joost co-founders. Zennstrom and Friis filed a lawsuit against former Joost CEO and Chairman Mike Volpi along with venture capital firm Index Ventures. The lawsuit states that there has been a breach of “fiduciary duty against Volpi, aiding and abetting breach of fiduciary duty against Index, interference with prospective business advantage, misappropriation of trade secrets, breach of contract against Index, breach of confidence, and civil conspiracy.” Volpi had recently quit Joost to join Index Ventures back in July.
Between Index being sued and wanting to buy Skype from eBay, that company is up the creek made out of you know what with no oar. I also think it is safe to say that Friis and and Zennström don’t want to see Index own the company that they built and sold to eBay. Who knows? Maybe the purchase of Skype might be too much of a headache and might the transaction may be aborted. But all the buyers involved have already come to far and won’t go down without a fight.
Former Joost CEO Mike Volpi Joins Index Ventures As A Partner
Late last month, Mike Volpi was replaced as CEO of Joost, but remains as Chairman. Another position that Volpi will be taking since his CEO duties have been relieved is partner at Index Ventures as AllThingsD revealed in an interview. Index Ventures invested $45 million in Joost several years ago and Joost brought in Volpi, a former Cisco exec as the CEO.
Index Ventures participated in a $45 million round in Joost a couple of years ago. Volpi will be working out of the London office at Index. “In a market downturn, it is a good time to invest,” stated Volpi. “There are a lot of great opportunities out there now.”
Categories Index Ventures, Joost, Mike Volpi
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Joost Is Further Fading Into Irrelevance
Joost was started by Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis back in October 2006. The company raised about $45 million in funding shortly after starting up. Investors included Sequoia Capital, Index Ventures, Viacom, CBS and Li Ka-shing. Joost killed off their desktop application and became purely a web service in September 2008.
Joost announced that they have replaced former CEO Mike Volpi. Joost SVP of Engineering Matt Zelesko will be replacing Volpi. However Volpi will remain as Chairman of the board.
As a result of Joost’s lack of growth compared to YouTube, Hulu, and other video services Joost has decided to focus on providing video platforms for bigger companies. There will also be major layoffs. Joost employs about 100 people in New York and London.
[via Reuters]
Categories CBS, CBS Corp, CBS Corporation, Index Ventures, Joost, Li Ka-Shing, Matt Zelesko, Mike Volpi, Sequoia Capital, Viacom Inc
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