Sony Pictures Considered Buying BitTorrent Inc.

[NelsonG]

[img]http://torrentfreak.com/images/acq.jpg[/img]In Hollywood, BitTorrent is often framed as a threat due to its pirate stigma, but the technology also offers opportunities.

BitTorrent Inc, the company behind the popular [url="http://www.utorrent.com/"]uTorrent[/url] software, helps artists to legally distribute their work [url="http://blog.bittorrent.com/2014/12/23/the-bittorrent-report-2014-edition-2/"]to millions of people[/url] every year.

TF can now reveal that Sony Pictures’ interest in the technology was so concrete that the movie studio listed it as a potential acquisition. In a draft presentation from early 2006 BitTorrent flanks other buying opportunities such as TiVo and Netflix.

The Sony presentation discusses options to “refine” its business and saw BitTorrent as a potential candidate to diversify. Among other things, buying BitTorrent could improve margins and facilitate growth.

To accomplish this goal Sony could invest $2 to $4 billion dollars, certainly enough to buy BitTorrent. Even Netflix, which didn’t offer video streaming yet, was within reach based on a $1.2 billion valuation at the time.

[img]http://torrentfreak.com/images/sonytorrentdiv.png[/img]

According to the presentation the acquisition candidates would bridge a gap between Sony’s entertainment content and the company’s technology devices.

In the case of BitTorrent this could facilitate the development of set-top boxes and TVs with built-in technology to download and play video content. This is an area BitTorrent was already working on with other partners.

[img]http://torrentfreak.com/images/sonytorrent.jpg[/img]

In an overview sheet Sony sums up some of BitTorrent’s strengths as well as recent developments. It mentions the agreement [url="https://torrentfreak.com/bittorrent-and-mpaa-join-forces/"]with the MPAA[/url] to keep infringing content off its website, among others.

Sony was also aware of BitTorrent’s plans to launch its own entertainment store. This eventually [url="https://torrentfreak.com/bittorrentcom-launches-video-store/"]launched[/url] a year later but [url="https://torrentfreak.com/bittorrent-shuts-down-video-store-brings-back-search-081207/"]never got[/url] any real traction.

[img]http://torrentfreak.com/images/bittoverview.jpg[/img]

Despite the enthusiasm Sony never bought BitTorrent. The company [url="http://techcrunch.com/2006/08/22/wow-grouper-sells-for-65-million/"]went for Grouper[/url] instead and eventually bought a 25% stake in Starz Media as well.

Today almost a decade has passed, and in hindsight it’s not necessarily a bad decision for Sony to have passed on BitTorrent. The company has a massive userbase but struggles to find good revenues sources.

Netflix, on the other hand, is definitely a missed opportunity as the company now dominates online media distribution worldwide.

Source: [url="https://torrentfreak.com"]TorrentFreak[/url], for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, [url="http://torrentfreak.com/top-popular-torrent-sites-2015-150104/"]torrent sites[/url] and [url="http://torrentfreak.com/anonymous-vpn-service-provider-review-2015-150228/"]ANONYMOUS VPN services[/url].

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