BitTorrent sales process details
Before Justin Sun acquired BitTorrent, the platform had attracted many suitors. In addition to Tron and Neo, ICO and Protocol Labs, a blockchain project that focuses on governance and also manages Filecoin, he was talking to BitTorrent with intentions to buy the entity.
In addition, the parties who were aware of the negotiation process confirmed that the participants were more companies in the blockchain sector involved in the discussions. However, these sources have not indicated whether non-blockchain companies have expressed an interest in buying the peer-to-peer file sharing platform. In the end, Justin Sun won the bid to acquire BitTorrent.
Although BitTorrent has greatly contributed to the decentralization of the Internet through its software infrastructure, the company has struggled to establish a sustainable business model. At the end of last year, Bram Cohen, the founder and brain behind BitTorrent's core technology, continued to launch Chia, a mining encryption company that emphasizes eco-friendliness.
According to confidential documents, the transfer of ownership of BitTorrent declared when Justin Sun approached the major shareholder of the platform, the venture capital firm DCM. Precisely, Justin met with David Chao, a member of the BitTorrent executive council who controlled most of the company's actions.
During the meeting, he told Davis that he wanted to buy the preferred stock of DCM to get control of the BitTorrent platform. However, Chao also forced Justin to purchase the company's common stock so that standard shareholders benefit from the purchase.
The most significant competitor of Justin's bid to acquire BitTorrent was Neo Global Capital, the company that owns the digital currency NEO, which widely regarded it as the Chinese peer of Ethereum. Although Neo Global Capital presented an offer higher than Justin's $ 50 million, it was rejected for a number of reasons. In total, there were six interested parties during the sale of BitTorrent, with half of them submitting offers while others went away.
In addition, BitTorrent also contacted Block One, the company that developed the EOS protocol, to see if they would be interested in buying their platform. At the time, Block One had managed to get a substantial $ 4 billion in their one-year crowdfunding ICO event. In this regard, Brendan Blumer, CEO of Block one, affirmed the approach of BitTorrent and also said that his company was not interested.
The Attractiveness of BitTorrent
As of now, Tron has yet to publish a reason behind the acquisition of BitTorrent, although many speculate that Justin was attracted to the 100 million monthly users of the platform. On the other hand, the factors behind the interest of other bidders are known.
For example, Neo Global Capital foresaw a scenario where they could use BitTorrent to build a decentralized file storage protocol for DApps within their blockchain ecosystem. [19659004] Apparently, Icon was excited about the prospect of integrating BitTorrent software into their systems, while the Labs Protocol were attracted to the great BitTorrent base. However, neither of these two companies offered an offer to BitTorrent, probably due to seemingly exorbitant prices, concerns over copyright infringement associated with the protocol and challenges in monetizing and integrating BitTorrent technology.
Essentially, the only entities that expressed serious interest in the purchase of BitTorrent were Neo Global Capital and Tron. According to Ben Lebeau, head of the cryptographic division of Sandwich Video, the appeal to BitTorrent is understandable. Firstly, the business model and standards used by BitTorrent comply with the wishes of the cryptographic community.
In this regard, Ben praised BitTorrent to revolutionize the file sharing industry that had been dominated by centralized content distribution networks. Ben also added that Tron acquired BitTorrent to strengthen its presence in the United States. He concluded by saying that Tron can create a true internet of value if they take advantage of the capabilities of BitTorrent.
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