Report: TRON Cryptocurrency Founder Acquired BitTorrent

Software company BitTorrent Inc. has reportedly been sold to blockchain entrepreneur and developer of the TRON platform, Justin Sun, Variety reported June 11.

The acquisition ostensibly closed last week, with BitTorrent management informing staff about the deal. According to a source aware of the transaction, the company’s employees have been advised not to release any information. Variety reported that some of the stakeholders have also been contacted by the transfer agent who was hired for the deal. No financial details of the acquisition have been available as of press time.

Last month, Cointelegraph reported that BitTorrent was in the process of being acquired by the TRON founder. Sun reportedly entered into negotiations with BitTorrent in September of last year, and signed a letter of intent to purchase in January. The deal was suspended because BitTorrent started negotiating with additional bidders, which ran contrary to the agreement. The involvement of other parties made Sun file a temporary restraining order.

Sun eventually dismissed the lawsuit, and registered a company called Rainberry Acquisition Inc. At the beginning of last year, BitTorrent had renamed its business entity to Rainberry Inc., as reported by Variety. Last week, Rainberry Acquisition Inc. reportedly filed a change of status with the California Secretary of State due to a merger. BitTorrent’s Rainberry Inc. also filed for a merger on the very same day.

Neither Sun nor company representatives could be reached for comment. As of press time TRON (TRX) was trading at $0.048 with a total market capitalization over $3.1 bln.

The file sharing service BitTorrent, which shut down its live streaming business last year, was developed by Bram Cohen. Cohen reportedly left the company for a CEO position at Chia, a San Francisco-based company focused on improving cryptocurrency infrastructure.