eBay acquired Skype Technologies S.A. in September 2005 and in April 2009 announced plans to spin it off in a 2010 initial public offering (IPO).

The Skype North American headquarters was opened in early 2013, after the design was completed by San Francisco architect firm Blitz.

Fake lawn, cushions that look like boulders, open spaces, and high ceilings accommodate 250 employees in a 5,000 square metres (54,000 sq ft) building.

[77] StreamCast Networks filed a complaint in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, alleging theft of its peer-to-peer technology and violation of the "Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations" statute.

The complaint, titled; StreamCast Networks Inc v. Skype Technologies, S.A., was filed on 20 January 2006 in Federal Court in the Central District of California and assigned Case Number, 2:2006cv00391.

In its lawsuit, Streamcast sought a worldwide injunction on the sale and marketing of eBay's Skype Internet voice communication products, as well as billions of dollars in unspecified damages.

[80] In July 2007 Skype was found to be guilty by a German court of violating the GNU General Public License in one of its for-sale products, the SMC WSKP100.

[81][82] Skype was one of many companies (others include AOL, Microsoft, Yahoo, Cisco) which cooperate with the Chinese government in implementing a system of Internet censorship in mainland China.

[83] Niklas Zennström, then chief executive of Skype, told reporters that its joint venture partner in China was operated in compliance with domestic law.

[85] Starting in November 2010, Skype has been participating in a U.S. Government spy program titled PRISM, allowing the National Security Agency (NSA) unfettered access to people's chats and video and audio communications.