Phillip Phan, a business professor at Johns Hopkins Carey Business School in Baltimore, foresees difficulties in the boardroom between Zennstrom and Friis and their fellow stakeholders.
“It’s obvious that the founders have an emotional interest in the company,” says Phan, who teaches corporate governance. “I suspect you will see an ongoing battle in the executive suite between the founders and the rest of the partners.”
Zennstrom and Friis refute this assertion. “That skepticism is entirely misplaced,” their spokesman Tom Rayner wrote in an e- mail. “Niklas and Janus have a huge and genuine respect for their new partners, with whom they are very much looking forward to working.”
-Johns Hopkins Carey Business School Professor quoted in BusinessWeek on the Skype Founders renewed involvement with Skype
