BUSINESSPERSON

Janus Friis

1976 - Today

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Janus Friis (Danish: [ˈjɛːnus ˈfʁiˀs]; born 26 June 1976) is a Danish entrepreneur best known for co-founding the file-sharing application Kazaa, and the peer-to-peer telephony application Skype. In September 2005, he and his business partner Niklas Zennström sold Skype to eBay for $2.6B. Friis has maintained ownership interest in Skype through Silver Lake Partners, which sold Skype to Microsoft for $8.5 billion (~$11.7 billion in 2024), in May 2011. Friis and Zennström also developed Joost—an interactive software application for distributing TV shows and other forms of video content over the Web. The assets of this service were sold to Adconion Media Group in November 2009. Read more on Wikipedia

His biography is available in 17 different languages on Wikipedia. Janus Friis is the 834th most popular businessperson (down from 803rd in 2024), the 803rd most popular biography from Denmark (up from 817th in 2019) and the 7th most popular Danish Businessperson.

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Among BUSINESSPEOPLE

Among businesspeople, Janus Friis ranks 834 out of 847. Before him are Tessy Antony de Nassau, Evan Spiegel, Yang Huiyan, Håkon Wium Lie, Scott Forstall, and Simon Leviev. After him are Sunita Narain, Zhou Qunfei, Roger Goodell, Aliya Nazarbayeva, Jack Abramoff, and Steve King.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1976, Janus Friis ranks 738. Before him are Nadir Lamyaghri, Lu Li, Duilio Davino, Brian Price, Sinha, and Dušan Vemić. After him are Stylianos Venetidis, Evan Jones, Michael Blackwood, Jonathan Liebesman, Fabão, and Sevara Nazarkhan.

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In Denmark

Among people born in Denmark, Janus Friis ranks 803 out of 1,032. Before him are Leon Andreasen (1983), Sara Forestier (1986), Christopher (1992), Chris Anker Sørensen (1984), Troels Lund Poulsen (1976), and Nina Agdal (1992). After him are Alex Høgh Andersen (1994), Jimmi Madsen (1969), Kristian Thulesen Dahl (1969), Steven Lustü (1971), Prince Henrik of Denmark (2009), and Patrick Mtiliga (1981).

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Among BUSINESSPEOPLE In Denmark

Among businesspeople born in Denmark, Janus Friis ranks 7. Before him are Ole Kirk Christiansen (1891), Paul Elvstrøm (1928), Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller (1913), J. C. Jacobsen (1811), Jakob Nielsen (1957), and Anders Hejlsberg (1960).

Danish born Businesspeople

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