Niklas Zennstrom Biography

Niklas Zennström biography

Niklas co-founded Skype in 2003 to offer consumers worldwide a free software for making superior-quality calls using their computer. Skype has since expanded its offering for all major computing platforms - Linux, MAC & PC and mobile/ handheld devices. With more than 100 million registered users (hopelessly outdated by the time you read this!), Skype is the fastest growing communications phenomenon in history.

Prior to Skype, Niklas founded and served as CEO at Joltid, a software company that develops and markets peer-to-peer (P2P) solutions and traffic optimization technologies for service providers. Niklas co-founded and served as CEO of KaZaA, the consumer file-sharing sensation that became the world's most downloaded Internet software in 2003.

Niklas also co-founded Altnet, the world's first secure P2P network that promotes commercial content and integrates the full value chain of promotion, distribution, and payment for digital content. Altnet was the world's largest issuer of DRM licenses.

Niklas was CEO of the European everyday.com portal, and held various business development roles at get2net. He started his professional career at Tele2, when there were only 23 employees, with the goal to expand the business footprint across Europe. Today Tele2 is the leading consumer-oriented pan-European telecom operator present in 23 countries.

Niklas Zennström holds dual degrees in business and MSc Engineering Physics/ computer science from Uppsala University in Sweden. He spent his final year at University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

When Niklas is not creating new cutting-edge disruptive businesses, he enjoys sailing, skiing, outdoor activities and travelling. Niklas is happily married.

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