itTorrent Inc, the company behind the popular torrent client uTorrent, is reportedly getting close to being acquired by TRON founder Justin Sun, as both parties are said to be finalizing the deal’s last details.
According to Torrent Freak, the move was uncovered through legal paperwork filed earlier this year that revealed BitTorrent – which quietly renamed its company to “Rainberry” last year- was sued by Justin Sun over a “No Shop” clause in an agreement it signed in January.
Reportedly, Sun started eyeing the acquisition back in September 2017, and in January of this year both parties finalized a letter of intent. Sun’s lawsuit claims that, just as things appeared to be on the right track, BitTorrent’s chief executive officer Ro Choy revealed he received “superior” bids from other companies.
The lawsuit claims:
“Within literally hours after the parties agreed to the Letter of Intent, and after Ro Choy began performing the terms of the Letter of Intent, Defendant claims it received three ‘superior’ bids from companies that David Chao admitted they had been communicating with.”
Justin Sun's lawsuit
In response Sun asked the court for a restraining order, to see BitTorrent cease communications with other potential buyers. The court swiftly dismissed the case, but its paper trail was eventually found.
Per Torrent Freak at the end of February, right after the exclusivity period ended, a holding company dubbed “Rainberry Acquisition” was registered in California by Sun. BitTorrent, a company whose products have over 100 million users, confirmed the acquisition hasn’t yet been finalized.
BitTorrent has been going downhill in the past few years, partly due to questionable management practices. Its massive user base and products, however, may be of TRON’s interest, as the cryptocurrency’s ultimate goal is to “decentralize the web.”
The cryptocurrency’s whitepaper, which some claim was mostly copied from other projects, mentions torrents as one of the pillars for its goal. At press time, TRON’s market cap is of $4.76 billion. Its TRX token is up by 5.09 percent in the last 24-hour period, and is trading at $0.072, according to data from CryptoCompare.
As covered by CryptoGlobe, the TRX token has been surging ahead of its mainnet and virtual machine launch. TRON’s mainnet is set to go live on May 31 as it launches its own blockchain, a development most of the cryptocurrency’s proponents have been looking forward to.