JANUS FRIIS

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Place of Birth: Copenhagen

Net worth: $40 billion

Janus Friis, 33, who 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 partner Niklas Zennström sold Skype to eBay for $2.6B. In 2006 Janus Friis got the prestigious award “IT-prisen” (“The IT Prize”) in his home country, given by the Danish IT industry and IDG, for his work and innovation.

Janus co-founded Joost, Skype, Kazaa and Joltid, among other high-profile technology companies, with his long-time business partner Niklas Zennström. In 2005, Skype was sold to eBay Inc for $3.1 bn.

During his time at Skype, Janus pioneered the development of the company’s voice products and helped it to become the global leader in internet communications, with more than 309m registered users within five years of launch and revenues of $551m 2008.

He serves on the board of Joost, where he is also co-chairman of the advisory board. Janus began his career in technology at CyberCity, one of Denmark’s first Internet Service Providers. Janus is the recipient of a series of industry awards and was also recognized by Time Magazine as one of its 100 Most Influential People in 2006.

In September 2007, Mr. Zennstrom quit. Two years later, Mr. Zennstrom and Janus Friis, the other Skype founder, have elbowed their way back into the company, Bloomberg News writes. In September, they began a legal fight against eBay and a buyout group led…

In September 2007, he quit as CEO of the Internet phone company. Two years later, Zennstrom and Janus Friis, his fellow Skype co-founder, have elbowed their way back into the company, Bloomberg Markets magazine reported in its February issue.

Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom think they can succeed where others have failed, in convincing music fans to spend a few dollars each month on an unlimited music subscription service.