Skype Scoops Up VoIP Tech Cos.

Skype Technologies has acquired Internet voice technology company Sonorit Holding and its U.S. subsidiary, Camino Networks, for about US$27 million in eBay stock, Skype announced Tuesday.

Skype, which is owned by eBay, made the acquisition in order to add the companies’ online voice engineering experts to its staff, it said. They will help design and develop future versions of Skype’s voice-over-IP (VoIP) product.

Skype described Sonorit and Camino as start-up companies building products for speech processing, coding and transmission over Internet-based networks.

Camino’s speech products are geared toward mobile IP networks, according to a biography of Jonathan Christensen, Camino’s president and chief executive officer, on the website of an investment company for which he serves as an adviser.

Sonorit and Camino have been the subject of at least one lawsuit. In December, Global IP Sound (GIPS), a company that offers VoIP technologies, filed a lawsuit that charged them with violating trade secrets. GIPS said some Sonorit workers were former GIPS employees.

EBay bought VoIP provider Skype in 2005 for $2.5 billion, aiming to help buyers and sellers using its online auction site to communicate with each other easily.

-Nancy Gohring, IDG News Service

For related news coverage, read StreamCast Files RICO Charges Against Skype and Skype Offers Web Calls Minus PC Connection.

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