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BitTorrent Inc lays off a third of US workforce

By | Published on Tuesday 28 April 2015

BitTorrent

Tech firm BitTorrent Inc – best known for developing the technology that powers so much file-sharing but which also dabbles in direct-to-fan channels – made almost a third of its US workforce redundant on Thursday last week. Between 40 and 45 of the 150 employees at the company’s US headquarters reportedly lost their jobs.

Confirming the news to Buzzfeed, a spokesperson for the company said: “We’ve recently realigned resources based on a regular evaluation of the business. Regrettably, this did include some employee departures. The business however, remains healthy, profitable and growing”.

But an unnamed source told TorrentFreak: “The ads team has been gutted as have several other groups – more development work is being sent to the BitTorrent team in Minsk. Only one person from senior management was let go, as is often the case in these types of things”.

Another claimed that the cuts were due to “very unrealistic revenue projections” in the past, which had led to the company expanding too quickly.

Last year, BitTorrent launched the ability for artists to charge for music released through its Bundles platform, with Thom Yorke the first to do so. Subsequently, artists such as Diplo and Ratking have used the system to release new content. However, although some releases report high download numbers in the millions, it’s not clear how many people are then paying to unlock them (or simply taking the free tracks offered in bundles).



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