Pirate Bay acquisition still on track

Anybody following the plight of The Pirate Bay may have read Tuesday that the potential acquirers are "back pedaling," "backing out," or that the deal was uncertain.

"Nobody is uncertain about anything," said Hans Pandeya, CEO of Global Gaming Factory, the software company that plans to acquire the Pirate Bay for $7.8 million.

"We are more certain than ever before.There are no changes in our plan," Pandeya told CNET News Tuesday evening. "We'll bring the deal to investors at a shareholders meeting, which we expect to hold in four weeks."

What appears to have happened is that members of the media stirred up skepticism about a deal getting done by "twisting" comments made by one of Global Gaming's lawyers, said Pandeya. During a court hearing on Tuesday in the Netherlands, Ricardo Dijkstra, Global Gaming's attorney, said the Swedish company would only acquire The Pirate Bay if the site can be turned into a "legitimate business."

Dijkstra said whether the sale will be completed is "very much the question."

Pandeya said all Dijkstra was doing was pointing out that no deal is done until a contract is signed and that hasn't happened yet. But Pandeya said reports about a potential setback are vastly overblown. He says the funding is in place and that all that needs to be done is to fulfill the requirements set forth by investors. Ever since the company announced its intentions to buy The Pirate Bay earlier this month the company said that any purchase was contingent upon approval of investors.

"When we have the funding signed then we'll issue a press release," Pandeya said.

As for ditching plans to buy the company because of some question about whether it can be turned into a legitimate business, well, there isn't any question, said Wayne Rosso, the former Grokster exec who Pandeya recently hired.

Rosso told CNET last week that once an acquisition is complete, The Pirate Bay will no longer be a BitTorrent tracker, enabling users to find unauthorized movies and music. The site will morph into a legal service that offers content in exchange for users' computer bandwidth and hard drive space, he said.

The controversy began when Global Gaming found itself being called to court by Brein, a Netherlands-based group that represents copyright owners. According to Pandeya, Brein was under the erroneous impression that Global Gaming had already acquired The Pirate Bay and was trying to include them in a civil suit the group file against the original iteration of the site.

But what about the music industry's attempts to collect money from The Pirate Bay founders, could that scuttle a deal? The music industry has plans to try to collect the cash that Global Gaming has offered to pay to acquire The Pirate Bay. Earlier this year, a Swedish court found The Pirate Bay's four founders guilty of copyright violations and ordered them to pay $3.6 million.

"We have nothing to do with that," Pandeya said. "The acquisition goes through when the money hits the bank account...and what happens after that we have nothing to do with."

The Pirate Bay's founders have said that they haven't owned the service since 2006.

[Jim Hubbard]

I've only got one thing to say to Global Gaming........SUCKERS!

I mean, what moron really thinks that PB users are gonna say "Oh, you're screwing with the best thing we've ever had.....well, sure! We're in!!"?

Another company with more money than brains......

[QMT]

"Hey! Here's a new site where we can rampantly pirate stuff!"
"Wow. This site is getting mad popular."
"Hey, I heard that site got sued or something."
"Oh, it appears they got bought out by some venture capitalist."
"Aw man, they turned it into a subscription thing. What else we got out there?"
"Hey! Here's a new site where we can rampantly pirate stuff!"

[themusicvoidcom]

Read Wayne Rosso's Blog On The New Pirate Bay Model Here:

http://www.themusicvoid.com/2009/07/exclusive-the-pirate-bay-2-0/

[Jim Hubbard]

The problem with this "model" is that TPB has already lost in court. If it continues to share, it will be a trivial thing to have it's servers shut off and to get millions MORE in damages.

This fat lady dun sung, showered and is snoring away....

[The_Decider]

It is not trivially easy to shut down the servers.

The only case where the fat lady has sung is in regards to the notion that corporations do not rule the planet to the detriment of everyone.

[The_Decider]

This just shows that Global Gaming Factory doesn't have a clue. It is trivially easy to create a system like TBP for far less than $7 billion and once it is done the site will be as relevant as Napster is today, so they aren't buying anything of value.

[kaisdaddy]

The really sad thing is that if the lawyers do actually wind up collecting several million from TPB founders, I'm willing to bet that nobody who was actually 'damaged' by the tracker will see a penny of that money. It will go to cover legal fees (the lawyers always get paid first) and as for the rest, who knows?

[krazikofiman]

In the mean time, all sails away, we ride this tail wind to the gates of...

[knowles2]

Shame guest I will have to use alternative sites and means in the future, mostly for software downloading through as streaming sites have taken over my tv viewing. And music was taken over by free streaming services.

Hopefully Mininova will hold out and other torrent sites.