Former Grokster exec pulls out of Pirate Bay acquisition

After speaking to people supposedly investing in the acquisition of The Pirate Bay, former Grokster exec Wayne Rosso says he has doubts about a deal.

(Credit: Waynerosso.com)

Wayne Rosso, the former president of Grokster, has walked away from Global Gaming Factory because of "strong doubts" the Swedish company has enough funds to acquire The Pirate Bay.

Global Gaming, a Swedish software company, made big news last month by announcing plans to acquire The Pirate Bay for $7.8 million. Hans Pandeya, Global Gaming's CEO, then hired Rosso to negotiate legal music and film licensing deals on the company's behalf.

Rosso had spoken to executives from the top four major labels as well the music industry's worldwide trade group about The Pirate Bay, but now those talks have been "blown up," Rosso told CNET News on Tuesday. Rosso said he's spoken with some of the alleged investors Global Gaming had lined up.

"I and my colleagues have very strong doubts that the funding is in place," Rosso said. "And there are other issues regarding Mr. Pandeya's credibility that trouble us greatly."

Pandeya and Global Gaming have also not met payment deadlines to Rosso and his staff, according to Rosso. Pandeya said in a phone interview from Sweden that he was in the process of paying Rosso and his team.

"Everything is going to plan," Pandeya said. "We have plenty of investors that are interested in this and Wayne is just one of our many consultants...he might have been too impatient. We pay everyone we do business with."

Rosso's assertions raise even more doubts that The Pirate Bay, the famed BitTorrent tracker that enables users to find unauthorized copies of film and music, will become a legal site anytime soon.

Last week, Global Gaming's attorney stirred speculation about whether the public company would be able to complete a deal after he told a Dutch court that whether an acquisition can get done is "very much the question."

Following that, Pandeya told CNET that everything was fine, that the attorney was just stating a deal isn't done until the signatures are on the contract. He said in the interview, which Rosso also participated in, that he had the funding to acquire The Pirate Bay and just needed board and investor approval. He said they are due to vote on the deal sometime in August.

Elsewhere, the movie industry has filed suit against the founders of The Pirate Bay. The blog TorrentFreak, reported that nearly a dozen "major movie companies issued a subpoena to the Stockholm District Court demanding it put an end to the activities of The Pirate Bay."

A spokeswoman for the Motion Picture Association of America said "The Pirate Bay continues to facilitate the wholesale illegal infringement of film and television works in an organized and commercial manner despite the criminal conviction handed down by Stockholm District Court. The studios have simply applied to the Court to require the three operators and the ISP hosting the Web site and trackers to cease this infringement."

The Pirate Bay founders have maintained that they haven't owned the site since 2006, but the complaint, the studios allege that Reservella, the holding company that is the listed owner of the site, is controlled by Fredrik Neij, one of the four founders.

[eswinson]

They must not be very serious if they didn't get him to sign an NDA

[Lerianis3]

Got to agree with that statement.

[unknown unknown]

First Mashboxx and now the Pirate Bay, Rosso can't seem to get a legit P2P service off the ground.

[benjwah]

No one can.
Here's your business model:
1. Attract people who don't want to pay for movies by giving away free movies.
2. Try and charge people for something they specifically come to your site to get for free
3. Wonder what went wrong.

[PhaseDMA]

While this blowing up at some point was unexpected. Not!