The bitter legal battle for Skype's technology between its owner eBay and Skype's founders over a dispute of its peer-to-peer (P2P) telephony technology is likely to end, according to The New York Times and technology blog site Gigaom.

Skype's Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis may arrive at a settlement with a consortium of private investors led by Silver Lake Partners, which will allow the US online auction company eBay, the current owner of Skype, to sell 65 per cent of voice-over-IP service Skype for about $2 billion.

In early September, a consortium of private investors led by Silver Lake Partners and London-based Index Ventures, which was an early investor in Skype had offered to acquire 65 per cent of Skype for $2 billion. (See: eBay to sell Skype to a consortium of private investors)

In a deal hammered out between Skype and co founders Zennstrom and Friis are likely to get a board representation with the possibility of Index Ventures being left out of the deal.

Michelangelo Volpi, currently in the eye of the legal battle is a partner at Index Ventures and earlier was the CEO of Joost, an internet TV service company founded and owned by Zennstrom and Friis.

The legal settlement, according to NYT citing two people briefed on its outlines, the consortium of Skype's buyers would be restructured in such a manner that Zennstrom and Friis would have a significant stake in the new Skype with one board seat and Index Ventures would be withdrawing from the consortium.

Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, held talks with several private equity firms in April to make a bid for Skype since current CEO John Donahoe said that Skype had no synergies with the rest of eBay, which also owns online payments service: PayPal. But the deal did not materialise over difference in the valuation of Skype. (See: eBay looking to sell Skype to original owners: report)

In September, eBay filed a case in the UK High Court of Justice in London to resolve a dispute regarding its peer-to-peer (P2P) telephony technology with Joltid Limited, a company run by Skype's founders. (See: Technology license dispute may close down Skype)

Skype currently uses Global Index technology from Joltid to make its P2P connections back-end and, without this technology, Skype would just become a shell without the software engine to drive it.

When Zennstrom sold Skype to eBay for $2.6 billion in September 2005, he retained the licensing rights to the Global Index technology through his company Joltid.

The licensing agreement dispute was previously disclosed by eBay in its 20 February 2009 annual report, saying Skype terminated a ''standstill'' agreement, allowing either party to take action against the other beginning in March.

Joltid then brought a counterclaim to eBay's court action by alleging that Skype has repudiated the licence agreement, infringed Joltid's copyright, misused confidential information and has terminated the licence to use its technology.

Skype's software enables the world to communicate either freely or for a few pennies. Millions of individuals and businesses use Skype to make free video and voice calls, send instant messages and share files with other Skype users.

Just two weeks after the consortium of private investors agreed to acquire 65 per cent of Skype, Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, Joltid ramped up pressure on eBay by filing a lawsuit filed in the San Francisco Federal Court alleging eBay of violating copyright laws by altering and sharing its Global Index Software. (See: Skype sale in cloud as Joltid files lawsuit)

Joltid sought damages of more than $75 million a day, an additional $150,000 for each direct infringement by a Skype user and wanted eBay to be barred from sharing the software codes.

The lawsuit also claimed that Volpi had breached the confidentiality agreement with Joost and used confidential information about Global Index technology to bring together a buyout team to make a successful bid for Skype.

By filing the lawsuit in the US court, Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis wanted to bar Volpi and Index Venture from sharing the confidential knowledge of its software and thus making it difficult for them to continue to be a part of the consortium.