Global Gaming Factory Acquires The Pirate Bay Website

[malware]

Swedish firm called the Global Gaming Factory announced today that it has bought The Pirate Bay webpage for just 60 million Swedish Krona (roughly $7.8 million USD or £4.6 million GBP). That's the breaking news for today. There's no need to describe The Pirate Bay, probably everyone here knows about The Pirate Bay web address and has visited it at least a dozen times, searching for pirated software, books, videos, games and everything that can be transferred into zeros and ones. At the moment The Pirate Bay is one of the 100 most visited Internet sites in the world and one of the leading search engines for file sharing. The site has more than 20 million visitors and over one billion searches per month.
With the deal completed, GGF acquires domain names and related web sites, including the http://www.thepiratebay.org domain. After the full acquisition The Pirate Bay is said to become as legitimate as possible. A new "business models" are being prepared for it that will compensate "the content providers and copyright owners." Read the full press release below.

The listed software company, Global Gaming Factory X AB (publ) (GGF) acquires The Pirate Bay website, http://www.thepiratebay.org, one of the 100 most visited websites in the world and the technology company Peerialism, that has developed next generation file-sharing technology. Following the completion of the acquisitions, GGF intends to launch new business models that allow compensation to the content providers and copyright owners. The responsibility for, and operation of the site will be taken over by GGF in connection with closing of the transaction, which is scheduled for August 2009.

"We would like to introduce models which entail that content providers and copyright owners get paid for content that is downloaded via the site, " said Hans Pandeya, CEO GGF.

"The Pirate Bay is a site that is among the top 100 most visited Internet sites in the world. However, in order to live on, The Pirate Bay requires a new business model, which satisfies the requirements and needs of all parties, content providers, broadband operators, end users, and the judiciary. Content creators and providers need to control their content and get paid for it. File sharers 'need faster downloads and better quality, " continues Hans Pandeya.

GGF acquires domain names and related web sites, including http://www.thepiratebay.org. The consideration for the purchase amounts to MSEK 60 consisting of at least MSEK 30 in cash and up to the equivalent of MSEK 30 in the form of newly issued shares in GGF (according to valuation in connection with the completion of the acquisition). The stock share of the purchase price is expected to be equivalent to a maximum of three per cent of the total number of outstanding shares of GGF after the acquisition. In the case that three percent of the shares is not equivalent to 30 MSEK, the major shareholder of GGF has declared that he will contribute the equivalent in cash.

GGF has entered into an agreement to acquire the shares in Peerialism AB. Peerialism AB is a software technology company with its origin in KTH Royal Institute of Technology and SICS, Swedish Institute of Computer Science and which presently is owned by the employees. The owners as well as the employees will continue to work for the company. Peerialism develops solutions for data distribution and distributed storage based on new p2p- technology. The access to the technology is secured by the acquisition. The consideration amounts to in aggregate MSEK 100 consisting of at least MSEK 50 in cash and up to the equivalent of MSEK 50 in newly issued shares in GGF (according to valuation during a period of ten days after the announcement). The share part of the purchase price should not exceed five percent of the total number of shares in GGF after the transaction. In addition GGF has undertaken to make initial investments of MSEK 25 in the acquired business.

"Peerialism has developed a new data distribution technology which now can be introduced on the best known file - sharing site, The Pirate Bay. Since the technology is compatible with the existing it will quickly allow for new values to be created for all key stakeholders and facilitate new business opportunities", says Johan Ljungberg, CEO Peerialism.

Completion of the acquisitions are primarily subject to GGF obtaining financing for the acquisition, that any necessary resolutions are adopted by a General Meeting of GGF, and that GGF and the Board of Directors consider that the acquired assets can be used in a legally and appropriate way. GGF intends to issue new shares in order to obtain the necessary financing for the acquisition. The acquisition is deemed to be completed in August 2009. In connection therewith, the ownership of, and responsibility for, the acquired assets will be transferred to GGF.

"As a result of the acquisitions of The Pirate Bay and Peerialism, GGF will have a strategic position in the international digital distribution market. File sharing traffic is estimated to account for more than half of today's global Internet traffic. The Pirate Bay has a global brand and holds a key position with over 20 million visitors and over one billion page views per month," says Hans Pandeya.

A Press briefing will be held on June 30th 2009 at 11.00 at Spårvägshallarna, Birger Jarlsgatan 57 A, Stockholm.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[malware]

Thanks to our member TheMailMan78 for this post.

 

[WhiteLotus]

Well this will be an interesting investment - surely with it going legit people will just stop going there... there can only be one youtube after all.

 

[bpgt64]

Well this will be an interesting investment - surely with it going legit people will just stop going there... there can only be one youtube after all.

What I think too...people use it because its free, how many websites have tried to make the jump from Ad based to subscription and died....lol

 

[a111087]

lol, just buy out all torrent sites and piracy will be a bit lower

 

[Black Hades]

Ahem to quote their forum:
12:47 anakata
it WONT become a f*cking pay-99c-to-download-a-song service and there will still be a public tracker so, those misunderstandings may be laid to rest
Peter S Kolmisoppi:
I do not think that I may say for legal reasons. But they are people we trust. And have conditioned things too..

 

[WhiteLotus]

Wow just read a blog entry and the responses. This is bad. Why can't people just be thankful for the hundreds of files they've got for absolutely nothing instead of moaning and whining at them selling?

And also Black Hades, you are right. I'm just reading up on it all now.

 

[toyo]

Is this the beginning of the end? Again big money takes over small initiative that proved successful. I'll just say it, even if I'll get the "Support the devs etc." shouts:

No pirated stuff means no more Pirate Bay!

 

[hat]

Hm... so someone actually managed to kill off Pirate Bay. Arr, this be a sad day in Pirate history.

 

[PCpraiser100]

This is a good approach to dominate piracy forever, just buying out the site like as if it were a ransom for game profit. Next stop Warez. Time to catch piracy, dead or alive.

 

[WhiteLotus]

It will still be a pirate site, but with some advertising going to pay royalties.

 

[mtosev]

It will still be a pirate site, but with some advertising going to pay royalties.

if you ask me it wont be more legal then it is now. it will still be blocked in some countries. like the UK

 

[hat]

Heh... that's a good one... wonder why ISPs don't just block pirate sites. Even Google would fail since all it does is point you to other torrent hosting sites.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

if you ask me it wont be more legal then it is now. it will still be blocked in some countries. like the UK

Its not blocked in the UK - Ive been able to access TBP all on more or less any machine with a net connection

 

[D4S4]

:shadedshu

 

[CrAsHnBuRnXp]

This is a good approach to dominate piracy forever, just buying out the site like as if it were a ransom for game profit. Next stop Warez. Time to catch piracy, dead or alive.

Until someone else just opens another site just like it.

 

[DaMulta]

Way to stick it to the man Pirate Bay!!!!

Time to move to NewsGroups!

I was all ready to pay for my Pirate Bay VPN Tunnel, and now only to see them giving up after all these years. AND FOR WAY 8 million.

They could of gotten 40 million + if they would of tried to sell the site......

 

[Kreij]

ARgggh matey. Like any good pirate, they sold their booty and run with the money.

Let's be honest here folks, if someone offered W1zz 8 million dollars for TPU how long do you think it would take him to decide to sell it?

Edit : Whoops, didn't mean to imply that W1zz is a pirate, just that he is a good businessman.

 

[TheMailMan78]

Ah yes all is well in the kingdom now. When I first read this story and submitted it to Malware I was as gitty as a school girl. Capitalism FTW. Take that you thieving bastards.

 

[WhiteLotus]

Ah yes all is well in the kingdom now. When I first read this story and submitted it to Malware I was as gitty as a school girl. Capitalism FTW. Take that you thieving bastards.

LOL.

Still gotta see what it'll "evolve" into though. It says it's going legit but really... How can it go legit and still have people go to it every day? One of the worlds most top visited sites down to the least visited site in a day makes it a very bad investment for GGF.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

Well this will be an interesting investment - surely with it going legit people will just stop going there... there can only be one youtube after all.

Exactly: one billion downloads today, less than a million tomorrow. Dimwits, the lot of them.

Until someone else just opens another site just like it.

There are lots of sites that are infinitely better than TPB. I think TPB became infamous because it has "pirate" in its title. They don't even try to hide what they do unlike the rest of them.

 

[Kreij]

This is interesting...

The Pirate Bay intends to pay users for letting their computers host content as part of a worldwide peer-to-peer network.

That's the plan of Global Gaming Factory, the company which intends to acquire the notorious website and legitimise its business.

"To compete with free file-sharing, you have to beat it," said CEO of GGF Hans Pandeya, speaking to the LA Times. "What's better than zero? Well, that's paying somebody USD 1."

source : Gamesindustry.biz

 

[FreedomEclipse]

awesome!!!! So i could get a few old rigs going & earn $$$ for hosting some of their shit!!! fucking awesome! im rich bitch!

 

[WhiteLotus]

That is interesting. So technically like a global server, when everyone is guilty of holding pirated software, try convicting all of them. No one in their sane mind is going to try.

I did see that they will be going public though, as in shares. Could be interesting.

I'm really intrigued by this news i do have to say. It's either going to be a raving success or a gigantic flop.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

My money is on flop. Ads don't generate enough money to pay royalties for good content, nevermind paying users too. The number of ads they'd need to pull that off would drive users away.