As expected, Skype has settled its court action with Joltid, the company set up by Skype founders Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis.

Skype president Josh Silverman called the result "exciting", explaining in a blog post that the firm now had control over the P2P software at the heart of the battle.

"I have some very exciting news to share with you today. In the past couple of days, we and eBay have reached a settlement with Joltid regarding our dispute with them," he said.

"This has extremely positive implications for us on three critical fronts. We will now have ownership of the software previously licensed from Joltid, so we'll be in control of our technology future.

"All litigation against eBay, Skype and the investor group ends, so we'll be free to concentrate all our efforts on building the world's greatest communications software."

Zennström and Friis will join Skype's board of directors, and have a 14 per cent share in the company in return for a "significant" cash investment.

EBay said that it is glad to continue focusing on its core business. "Skype will be well positioned to move forward under new owners with ownership and control over its core technology," said eBay president and chief executive John Donahoe.

"At the same time, eBay continues to retain a significant stake in Skype and will benefit from its continued growth. We look forward to closing the deal and focusing on growing our core ecommerce and payments businesses."