The company BitTorrent, which developed at the time the eponymous Protocol for p2p file exchange, sold to the Creator of the Tron platform and cryptocurrency TRX Justin Sana’a. According to Variety, the deal was held last week, it had already notified the staff of the company.
Rumors about a possible purchase BitTorrent first appeared in may, when the website TorrentFreak reported that San intends to acquire the company. Sana talks with BitTorrent began in September of last year, and the letter of intent he signed in January.
When BitTorrent started negotiations with other candidates, San began to seek a judicial temporary restraining order on the basis that BitTorrent has promised not to seek other buyers. But in the end San dismissed the case and registered the company Rainberry Acquisition (in the beginning of last year, BitTorrent was officially renamed in Rainberry). Last week Rainberry Acquisition of Sana filed a petition for a change of status in connection with the merger to the Secretary of the state of California. On the same day a similar application is filed by itself Rainberry (i.e. BitTorrent) — this situation clearly pointed to the merger of the two companies. Now the transaction is finally confirmed. According to Variety, the BitTorrent managers advised staff not to talk to the press.
Details of the deal are not yet known, but sung clearly enough funds to buy BitTorrent and its assets. The market capitalization of its cryptocurrency TRX is now equal to approximately $4.78 billion, $1.65 billion of which belong to Tron Foundation. This structure aims to launch the so-called decentralized Internet, using which developers will be able to create blockchain applications. However, it is unclear how Tron is going to integrate with BitTorrent.
The current deal is the latest in a long and tumultuous corporate history BitTorrent. Ten years ago, the company has collected millions of dollars to build the project in the field of entertainment industry based on p2p. Plans failed, and BitTorrent was forced to dismiss most of the staff and recapitalizations in 2008. In subsequent years, BitTorrent has continued to develop the business through advertising and other methods. At a certain stage the number of its monthly active users reached 150 million
In 2016, the two investors acquired a share in the company owned by one of the original investors. Not only did they gain a seat in the Board of Directors, but also briefly played the role of executives and initiated the attempt at expansion in the sphere of media, including the establishment of a production base in Los Angeles. These steps have not led to success; in the same year, both leaders were dismissed.
Last year BitTorrent has closed the project video streaming. The developer of the underlying technology BitTorrent Live was Bram Cohen, who left the company and now heads cryptocurrency startup Chia, unrelated to Tron.
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