The company rolled out its SkypeKit, which is a set of tools needed to integrate Skype into various devices. Initially, access to SkypeKit will be available by invitation only.

Until now, hardware manufacturers have had to ask Skype whether they can integrate its service into its devices. Skype would provide its approved partners with the software code necessary to build the feature in. Partners Panasonic and Samsung have already integrated Skype into their Web-enabled TV

Now, Skype is opening up this special code to anybody. Any maker of consumer electronics can take this code and integrate it into its gadgets. That should make Skype available on many more devices.

But there are drawbacks to this move as well. With the release of SkypeKit, Skype is relinquishing some control over the Skype experience. It will be up to hardware makers to make sure Skype users have no problems using the software. Poor implementations could, potentially, affect Skype's brand.

The upside could be substantial, however. The number of Web-connected devices that could, potentially, use Skype, is on the rise. Gearmaker Ericsson recently predicted there will be 50 billion Web-connected devices by 2020. "Our goal is to expand Skype across multiple platforms and empower third-party device makers and desktop software developers to embed Skype into consumer electronics devices and desktop applications," Jonathan Christensen, general manager for platform at Skype says in an e-mail. "This can go as far as the imaginations of our developers."

The appointment likely signals Skype's increasing determination to make further inroads into mobile, where it's not had as much traction as hoped. Several years ago, Hutchison Whampoa began offering 3 Skypephone. Skype has also made the service available as an application consumers can download onto some of the most popular smartphones, such as the iPhone. But Skype is yet to conquer mobile phones in a big way.

Flint may help change that. While at Sony Ericsson, he'd overseen the launch of popular phones like the Walkman line. And he may have the industry contacts and expertise necessary to launch more Skype-branded phones, and to get the software onto more handsets directly at the factory. He may also be able help Skype to make its software and its business model more attractive to handset makers and their carrier customers.

What's more, Flint also has connections and experience with consumer electronics other than mobile phones, having worked in marketing for Sony. Those connections could come in handy now: All consumer electronics, including digital photo frames, cameras and even televisions are getting connected to the Web. And Flint may be able to help Skype get onto more consumer electronics gear, wireless (as is increasingly the case) as well as hooked onto the Internet via cables.

It's not difficult to imagine Avaya helping Skype enter new markets, such as the premises of its large business clients. While Skype's Web-calling service is already widely used by small businesses, it's yet to prove that it's reliable enough to serve the needs of large enterprise customers. Perhaps Avaya, whose business is focused on the enterprise, could help Skype make its Web-calling service more attractive to such large companies.

What's more, Skype could be integrated into Avaya's products, which include certain Nortel gear (Avaya closed its Nortel acquisition today). Nortel has long helped carriers like Verizon service their corporate customers. By integrating its offerings with Skype's, Avaya could help reduce these customers' telecommunications bills.

The new owners include Skype founder Niklas Zennstrom, who likely has his own ideas about how to run the company and who should do the running, believe analysts. Some industry insiders believe Zennstrom would like to get into the driver seat himself. In the past, other Skype investors have told me they are happy with work current CEO Josh Silverman is doing, however.

But as six-year-old Skype tries to make it on its own again, instead of growing as part of the eBay conglomerate, its staff will inevitably change as will its culture. Its execs have long prided themselves on running the Web-calling enterprise as a start-up; now, however, they will have to live that start-up life for real.

In a lawsuit filed Wednesday in California court, entrepreneurs Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis allege eBay and Skype’s new investors are in violation of copyright law and seek damages that could total more than $75 million for each day they operate Skype. Experts say the suit could delay eBay from closing the $1.9 billion sale – which still awaits regulatory approval – or scare off Skype’s new investors altogether.

Allegations from Zennström and Friis have been a monkey on eBay’s back ever since March, when the pair’s company Joltid filed a lawsuit that would prevent eBay from using the core technology that makes the Internet calling service work, and which eBay had been licensing from Joltid since purchasing Skype in 2005. That lawsuit is scheduled for trial next year in a British court. “The first suit said ‘every time somebody downloads the Skype program, you are stepping on our intellectual property.’ Now they are saying ‘we’re going to charge you for it,’” says Randy Katz, partner of law firm Baker Hostetler, which is not affiliated with any of the plaintiffs or defendants.

Earlier this year, eBay disclosed in a 10-Q regulatory filing that it was in the process of building a replacement to the to peer-to-peer technology it licenses from Joltid, a sign it may be prepared to lose the court battle. No further details about the status of that project have emerged, and it’s unclear what eBay and Skype’s buyers would be left with if the substitute doesn’t come to fruition and Zennström and Friis prevail.

The legal uncertainty surrounding Skype was enough to cause eBay to stipulate in the sale agreement that it will be responsible for half of any fees that result from the court battle, even after Skype officially changes hands. “They sold 65% of the company and retained half of the liability,” says Todd Wade, partner of St. Louis-based law firm Bryan Cave.

But if damages end up being $75 million per day, eBay’s promise to foot half the bill may offer little solace to Index Ventures and co-investors Silver Lake Partners, Andreessen & Horowitz, and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. EBay’s SEC filing on the deal says the consortium can back out at any time for a fee of $300 million.