Niklas Zennström
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Niklas Zennström, born 1966, is a Swedish entrepreneur. He first gained fame as the co-founder of the KaZaA peer-to-peer file sharing network. After selling KaZaA he and his KaZaA-founding partner Janus Friis created Skype peer-to-peer internet telephony network. He is currently working on Joost, an interactive software for distributing TV shows and other forms of video over the Web.
He has dual degrees in Business Administration (BSc) and Engineering Physics (MSc) from Uppsala University in Sweden. He spent his final year at University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA.
[edit] Career
Zennström started his professional career at the European telecom operator Tele2. He went on to serve in various business development roles including launching and being responsible for European Internet Service Provider business get2net and as CEO of the everyday.com portal. Later, he co-founded and served as CEO of KaZaA. KaZaA has been highly critizised for the spyware/malware bundled with it, and has also faced lawsuits from the recording industry on copyright violations.
After KaZaA was sold to Sharman Networks, Zennström founded and served as CEO at Joltid, a software company developing and marketing peer-to-peer solutions and peer-to-peer traffic optimization technologies to companies.
Zennström also co-founded Altnet, the world’s first secure peer-to-peer network promoting commercial content to consumers which integrates promotion, distribution, and payment of digital content.
Another of Zennström’s ventures together with Friis was Skype, an Internet telephony company based on peer-to-peer principles. It was sold to eBay for €2.1 billion ($2.6 billion USD) plus potential performance-based consideration up to €1.2bn on October 14, 2005.
Zennström was named in Time Magazine's 2006 list of 100 most influential people.
He is currently working on a new peer-to-peer video distribution service called Joost together with Friis.
Zennström also cofounded Atomico, a venture capital firm, with Mattias Ljungman and Janus Friis.
He and Friis were the co-recipients of the 2006 Wharton Infosys Business Transformation Award, an award given to business and individuals who have used information technology in a way that changed an industry or society as a whole.
He is also one of the Young Global Leaders, World Economic Forum.
[edit] Interviews
- The Sunday Times (November 27, 2005) [1]
- Business Week (September 19, 2005) [2]
- The Guardian (July 14, 2005) [3]
- PCTechTalk (July 10, 2005) [4]
- BusinessWeek Online (May 30, 2005) [5]
- IDG News Service (March 16, 2005) [6]
- PC Pro (March 11, 2005) [7]
- TMCnet (March 2, 2005) [8]
- Engadget (November 8, 2004) [9]
- Pocket PC Thoughts (September 3, 2004) [10]
[edit] External links
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