Janus Friis is a Danish entrepreneur best known for co-founding the file-sharing application Kazaa, and the peer-to-peer telephony application Skype. In September 2005, he and his partner Niklas Zennström sold Skype to eBay for $2.6B. Friis has maintained ownership interest in Skype through Silver Lake Partners, which sold Skype to Microsoft for $8.5 billion, in May 2011. Friis and Zennström also developed Joost—an interactive software application for distributing TV shows and other forms of video content over the Web. The assets of this service were sold to Adconion Media Group in November 2009. Independently, Friis founded video streaming startup Vdio in 2011. Friis and Ahti Heinla founded Starship Technologies in 2014, to develop small self-driving delivery robots.
| Born: | 26, 1976, Copenhagen, Denmark |
| Nationality: | Danish |
| Occupation: | Entrepreneur |
| Known for: | Co-founder of Skype, KaZaA & Rdio |
| Net worth: | US$ 1.3 billion (2012) |
About Janus Friis
Billionaire entrepreneur who is the co-founder of KaZaA, Skype, and Rdio. He originally sold Skype, along with his partner Niklas Zennstrom, to eBay for $2.6 billion.
Before Fame
He hardly had an education as he dropped out of high school and found a job with one of Denmark's first internet providers called CyberCity.
Achievement
Time Magazine named him one of the top 100 most influential people of 2006.
Family Life
He was born in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Associations
He initially sold Skype to eBay who then sold it to Microsoft Corporation which is run by Bill Gates.
Information related to Janus Friis
- Skype
- Danish company founders
