BitTorrent-Tron Merger: The P2P File-Sharing Service Acquired by Tron

The most anticipated BitTorrent-Tron acquisition has taken place. The most popular peer-to-peer file-sharing technology service BitTorrent has been acquired by Justin Sun, the founder, and CEO of Tron, which is one of the newest blockchain-based cryptocurrencies gaining a considerable limelight in the crypto market.

The BitTorrent-Tron Merger

The talks of acquiring BitTorrent had been started by Justin Sun in September last year and he also went on to sign the letter of intent to acquire it in January this year. Since then, BitTorrent Inc. had put a delay on the deal as they were in talks with other bidders. As a result of this, Justin Sun filed a temporary restraining order, arguing that BitTorrent had agreed not to indulge with other bidders and pursue any other offers other than Tron’s.

After some while, Justin Sun had to finally drop its lawsuit and went on to register a company named as Rainberry Acquisition Inc. It is noteworthy to mention that BitTorrent had renamed its corporate entity to Rainberry Inc. at the beginning of last year.

It was only last week when both the companies, Rainberry Acquisition Inc. and Rainberry Inc. had filed for a merger, strongly suggesting that they had agreed on a merger.

The Deal Price

Though the news of BitTorrent being acquired by Tron foundation had started circulating since last week, it was only reported yesterday that the deal had been locked at $140 million. However, when the team at BitTorrent was inquired about the deal price they shunned it down by saying in an interview that the actual acquisition cost was not $140 million but $120 million.

BitTorrent co-founder and former president Ashwin Navin confirmed about the deal price in an interview with CoinDesk by saying, “The value of the deal is about $120 million. I think there are some numbers out in the public that were wrong, I think the value is lower than that.”

Tron’s On the Rise

Tron, which is a block-chain based decentralized protocol, aims to build a global digital content entertainment system using the blockchain and distributed storage technology. Within this decentralized protocol, users will be allowed to freely publish, store, and own content as well as generate income from the distribution and subscription of the same digital content without involving any third parties. Tron’s decentralized content entertainment ecosystem works completely opposite to that of Netflix’s.

On the other hand, BitTorrent is massively popular among the users as it has been offering peer-to-peer file sharing service for a long time now. Reportedly, over 170 million people have been using its products and services every month. On a daily basis, about 40% of the world’s internet traffic is moved using BitTorrent protocols.

So, you can only imagine how insanely popular this service is among the users. Acquiring a gigantic software company such as BitTorrent can only be so much profitable for a startup like Tron. The results of the merger are evident if we look at the surging price of Tron’s TRX token. As the news went viral across everywhere yesterday, the price of Tron’s TRX token shot up to nearly 20 percent within 24 hours, bringing it on number 9 spot on the coin market cap.

After news of the acquisition, there were speculations being made regarding BitTorrent changing its business model. To shun the rumors, BitTorrent team uploaded a post on their official blog saying that they have no plans to change what they do or charge for the services they provide. They also further stated that they have no plans to enable mining of cryptocurrency now or in the future.

When Justin Sun was questioned about the merger, he also expressed that he has full respect for BitTorrent. However, he did not give much information as to how both the companies would continue working after the merger. We hope to get more details from him until next month.