Skype has announced it is pulling Skype for Windows Mobile phones and Skype Lite for Java handsets, including Android.
The download pages for Windows Mobile and Java have been removed from Skype’s site, although existing users will not lose functionality for either Skype for Windows Mobile or Skype Lite, the company said on Thursday.

Microsoft has rescinded the copyright complaint that resulted in the shutdown of the long-standing whistleblower website, Cryptome.org, after it published Redmond’s spy guide for law enforcement.

The company said it has asked Cryptome’s ISP, Network Solutions, that the website be restored and that it no longer wants the offending document to be killed. On Wednesday, Cryptome hosted a 22-page PDF that outlines what information Microsoft gathers about its users and what can be handed over to authorities if required.

Similar guidelines for law enforcement have leaked their way to the website before, exposing the policies of Facebook, AOL, Skype, and Yahoo, among others.

Microsoft lawyers swung the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DCMA) in an attempt to force Cryptome to pull the document. When it refused to take action, Microsoft complained to Network Solutions, which not only closed the website, but placed a lock on the Cryptome.org domain to keep it closed.

NEW YORK — Verizon Wireless and Skype announced a partnership Tuesday to bring the Internet calling service to nine of the carrier’s 3G smartphones beginning in March.

With the free Skype Mobile application, Verizon (VZ, Fortune 500) smartphone users can make and receive unlimited free calls to other users who have Skype.

They can also use it to call any international phone number at Skype’s standard rates, which are much lower than Verizon’s international wireless calling rates. Calls abroad through Skype start at 2.1 cents per minute, and monthly unlimited packages are also available. The app will also let Skype users exchange instant messages.

“With any partnership, we’re looking to do what our consumers want. In this case, they asked for Skype to be untethered from their PCs,” Skype’s chief executive, Josh Silverman, told CNNMoney.com.

eBay’s latest move, some of the auction site’s devotees say, is straight out of the Ministry of Truth’s playbook.

The company made an announcement on Tuesday announcement about lowering the listing fees for items–even though, in many cases, final value fees will be raised. The company’s discussion forums simmered with outrage over the executive decision, and frustration over the lack of other options for auction-style e-commerce.

The leader of the Mozilla Project, whose Firefox Web browser now has 350 million users, said Sunday that she is concerned that legal restrictions could limit Internet expansion.

Users wanting to call home from abroad are increasingly turning to Skype’s Internet telephony service to the detriment of international carriers, new data showed.

Privately held Skype has forged deals with consumer electronics makers LG Electronics and Panasonic in a bid to move its Internet video service beyond the desktop computer to the living room TV.

The service, which includes free video calls between Skype members, will compete with consumer video conference services being developed by bigger companies such as networking giant Cisco Systems Inc and Polycom Inc, which plans to develop consumer video services with International Business Machines Corp.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Now that eBay has vaulted a major hurdle in its efforts to sell Skype, the Web telephony service must prove it can make it on its own.

Since its founding six years ago, Skype has built up a roster of more than 520 million registered customers who use the free Web service for voice, video or text communication. In just the last quarter, it added 40 million users.

Still, Skype is facing some challenges. One problem is growing competition from other high-profile services, including Google Inc’s (GOOG.O) Google Voice.

Another, perhaps larger, issue is that consumers are increasingly using mobile phones rather than landlines for communication. For Skype, mostly used on desktop computers, this means it must quickly make inroads into mobile.

But if Skype is to stay relevant, it will have to do so without the backing of corporate parent eBay Inc (EBAY.O) , which is selling a large stake in the service to a group of private investors. A lawsuit that threatened to sink the deal was settled on Friday.

Behind the deal is the idea that eBay can return to its central business — an online auction and payment service — without being distracted by managing a telephone service.

Skype, meanwhile, will not have to answer to a corporate parent, one that may have different strategic goals, and can therefore concentrate on its own growth prospects.

“It puts you in a different mindset,” said Marc Andreessen, a co-founder of investment firm Andreessen Horowitz, which will hold a stake in Skype once the deal closes.

As an independent company, “there’s no need to deliver any specific revenue or earnings number in a particular quarter. It’s a pure focus on the long term,” he said in an interview.

Andreessen pinpointed mobile as a key growth area and cited the launch of a Skype application for devices such as Apple Inc’s (AAPL.O) iPhone as a prime example of its efforts there.

But there are some doubts about its prospects in mobile. Forrester Research analyst Charles Golvin contends the Skype application is unlikely to appeal broadly to consumers so long as they must open a separate application every time they want to use the service.

What Skype needs to significantly expand in mobile, he said, is approval from telecommunications network operators to integrate its service more tightly with the cellphone’s main voice dialing feature.

The challenge will be getting operators to agree to such integration, as it could hurt their revenue.

“That is the impediment to making their deals,” Golvin said. “That impediment is there irrespective of whether they’re independent or owned by eBay … It’s a business model challenge.”

Nielsen analyst Roger Entner said that independence from eBay means that Skype could choose to spend more on marketing its service to help attract more customers. But aside from this Entner said: “It really doesn’t make a difference.”

Entner sees the private investors looking for another buyer for the company as soon as they can.

“Venture capital and private equity companies are not in there for the long haul. What’s now happening is that the search is starting for the real buyer,” he said.

Before Friday, it appeared the current deal could be doomed — or at least face long delays.

After eBay announced a plan to sell 65 percent of Skype for $1.9 billion in September, Skype’s founders threw a wrench into the works by suing eBay and a group private investors that planned to buy into the service. The dispute related to technology licensing.

Under the settlement, the founders, Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, will contribute software and a capital investment in exchange for a 14 percent stake in Skype. Investors Silver Lake, Andreessen Horowitz and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board will hold 56 percent of Skype and eBay will retain the rest. The deal values Skype at $2.75 billion.

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* Skype founders to get stake, board seat–report

* Index, Volpi dropped from investment group–report

* Skype founders to drop other claims against eBay–report

LOS ANGELES, Nov 3 (Reuters) – A settlement is near in a lawsuit that could have blocked eBay Inc (EBAY.O) from selling a majority stake in Web phone service Skype to Index Ventures and other investors for $1.9 billion, sources told the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday.

The Delaware federal court lawsuit, brought by Joltid and Joost, the companies of Skype founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, accused Index and its partner Michelangelo Volpi of using confidential information in their bid to acquire a 65 percent stake in Skype. Volpi was previously Joost’s chief executive.

Sources told Reuters last month that Zennstrom and Friis have tried to buy back Skype, which they sold to eBay in 2005, and had contacted several private equity firms.

EBay instead agreed to sell to a consortium that includes Index, private equity firm Silver Lake, Netscape founder Marc Andreessen’s Andreessen Horowitz and the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board.

On Tuesday, sources told the Journal that a settlement could come as early as this week. The settlement would drop Index and Volpi from the investment group and give Zennstrom and Friis a stake and at least one seat on the company’s board.

Under the proposed agreement, Zennstrom and Friis would end a separate intellectual-property dispute with eBay, the Journal reported. It was not clear whether the Skype founders would also drop the lawsuit against Volpi and Index for alleged breach of fiduciary duty, the Journal said.

An eBay spokesman declined to comment on the report.

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