RIP Skype (2003-2025), the video call app once indispensable to couples wanting to chat (and argue) over a great distance.
The Estonian-founded company made a lot of people rich, with many early employees going on to launch their own startups and investment vehicles. But when demand for video-call apps skyrocketed under Covid-19, Skype was quickly outflanked by Zoom and other rivals.
Microsoft bought Skype for $8.5bn in 2011 after outbidding Google and Facebook, making it one of the most lucrative corporate takeovers of a European startup. At its height, saying you were “Skyping a friend” was as common parlance as “Googling a question” or “Ubering home”.
In honour of Skype’s passing, we’ve listed some other milestone deals in Europe: it’s not exhaustive, but it highlights the region’s most notable tech takeovers and how the founders fared in the years after.
DeepMind
Bought by: Google
Estimated price tag: £400m
Enigmatic AI companies are ten-a-penny these days, but DeepMind was the original. Before Google bought it for a reported £400m in 2014, DeepMind didn’t have products and the company’s mission was explained simply as to “solve intelligence”.
Two of DeepMind’s three cofounders, Demis Hassabis and Shane Legg, are still leading the lab; the third, Mustafa Suleyman, is CEO of Microsoft’s AI unit. DeepMind proved itself early by developing AI that could quickly master old video games — but has since moved on to identifying changes in human DNA that might cause diseases.
Supercell
Bought by: Tencent
Estimated price tag: $8.6bn
China’s biggest gaming group Tencent bought Finnish “Clash of Clans” mobile game-maker Supercell in 2016 in a deal valued at roughly $8.6bn. Five of Supercell’s six cofounders still lead the company. The sixth cofounder, Mikko Kodisoja, left to set up virtual world builder Fireframe Studios in 2020.
Tencent did thorough due diligence on Supercell — Martin Lau, Tencent’s president was reportedly once a top 100 player in Supercell’s “Clash Royale” game.
LoveFilm
Bought by: Amazon
Estimated price tag: £200m
Amazon recently assumed creative control of the James Bond franchise, so we may live to see Jeff Bezos slipping on a tuxedo and trying his hand at 007.
But the online retail behemoth started its movie odyssey in 2008, when it bought a stake in UK-based DVD rental site Lovefilm. This became a full takeover in 2012, in a deal valued at a reported £200m.
We all know what happened next: DVD rentals went the way of the dodo. Lovefilm cofounder Alex Chesterman later started online car seller Cazoo in 2018: a mega-hit before crashing into insolvency in 2024. Last year, Motors.co.uk bought Cazoo for £5m, a significant drop from its estimated value in 2021 (£6bn).
iZettle
Bought by: PayPal
Estimated price tag: $2.2bn
There was a period where Sweden had a lock on Europe’s most interesting startups, from Candy Crush develop King to streaming music leader Spotify and payments firm Klarna.
iZettle — though little remembered — was another Swedish export. The Stockholm-based company, which made payment processing products, was acquired by PayPal in 2018 for $2.2bn, rebranding as Zettle.
Cofounders Jacob de Geer and Magnus Nilsson are in the Alps this week to mark 15 years since the pair shook hands on starting the company. Both are in the post-founder phase of life, doing some advising and investing (one of the companies de Geer has backed is a Stockholm startup delivering “high-quality” lace knickers — a world away from open banking platforms).
Tink
Bought by: Visa
Estimated price tag: €1.8bn
Fintech Tink’s Stockholm-based founders, Fredrik Hedberg and Daniel Kjellén (who has a strong moustache), stayed with the company until last month, when they left to form new startup Freda, which aims to help companies meet their compliance requirements.
Depop
Bought by: Etsy
Estimated price tag: $1.63bn
Secondhand shopping site Depop was snapped up by rival platform Etsy in 2021 for $1.63bn.
Depop founder Simon Beckerman told Sifted last year that relinquishing control of the company led him to “a breakdown” and forced him to take a year off working. In 2021, Beckerman launched Delli, a marketplace for independent food producers.
Skyscanner
Bought by: Ctrip
Estimated price tag: £1.4bn
Travel price checking website founded by three University of Manchester graduates that sold to Chinese tourism group Ctrip for £1.4bn in 2016.
Cofounder Bonamy Grimes once said in an interview that the company was motivated to beat rival price comparison site Expedia, which sometimes would take up to 45 seconds — an eternity on today’s internet — to return results. All three cofounders have stepped down from day-to-day involvement in the company; today Grimes is a film producer.
Mojang Studios
Bought by: Microsoft
Estimated price tag: $2.5bn
The creator of the biggest selling game of all time, Minecraft, sold in 2014. Mojang founder and subsequent billionaire Markus Persson, also known as Notch, cofounded a new game studio called Rubberbrain in 2015, which was relaunched in 2024 as Bitshift Entertainment.
Shazam
Bought by: Apple
Estimated price tag: about $400m
In 2018, Apple bought the music recognition startup and app Shazam — which by then had surpassed 1bn downloads and joined the rarified air of profitable apps — for about $400m. One of the four cofounders — Avery Wang — joined Apple as a scientist, while the others pursued new ventures (an advertising company here, some “tech for good” investments there) and hit the speaker circuit.
Read the orginal article: https://sifted.eu/articles/europes-biggest-tech-takeover-deals-and-what-the-founders-did-next/
