BitTorrent Inc Buys uTorrent
Written by Ernesto on December 07, 2006BitTorrent Inc just announced that it has acquired the popular BitTorrent client, uTorrent. uTorrent will continue to have its own website and community for now, and the uTorrent code base will remain closed source. Ludvig Strigeus, the writer of uTorrent will serve as a technical consultant, but BitTorrent Inc will do the majority of the development work.
uTorrent is an extremely lightweight, but feature-rich BitTorrent client. It was the winner of our BitTorrent client comparison, and voted the most popular BitTorrent client for Windows in our recent poll.
BitTorrent Inc (the company) on the other hand had a hard time building a large user base for their mainline client. By acquiring uTorrent they now have almost 50% of all BitTorrent users, which makes it easier to market their future products like the BitTorrent Video Store.
BitTorrent Inc founder and CEO Bram Cohen and uTorrent developer Ludvig Strigeus announced the deal at the uTorrent forum:
Together, we are pleased to announce that BitTorrent, Inc. and uTorrent AB have decided to join forces. BitTorrent has acquired uTorrent as it recognized the merits of uTorrent’s exceptionally well-written codebase and robust user community. Bringing together uTorrent’s efficient implementation and compelling UI with BitTorrent’s expertise in networking protocols will significantly benefit the community with what we envision will be the best BitTorrent client.”
“It supports our goal for improving the user experience. The developer of uTorrent put a significant amount of time and know-how into optimizing the client for user experience and we think he did a great job,” added Bram Cohen in a response.
It is unknown how much BitTorrent paid to aquire uTorrent. Stay tuned for more.
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19 Responses
DAM!
This may hurt as a long uTorrent fan.
I dont wanna have to leave it :’(
Damn it! They better not ruin something awesome :\, I’m gonna be supremely pissed if they do.
http://www.slyck.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=372452#372452
Halite BitTorrent client: Open source and very small (473 kb) Halite will take over the almighty µTorrent.
This could be good if done right. Azureus wen straight to hell when the started going outside of “standard” Bit torrent and adding featured content and all that.
With uTorrent in their stable, BitTorrent Inc can use it’s own client as “bloated” client, giving users easy access to featured content and such. While having uTorrent as a light version without all the bling-bling.
Only time will tell – but lets hope for the best! =)
the mainline client is open source correct? So id uTorrent was brought to replace it will it become open source as well?
[quote comment="28401"]the mainline client is open source correct? So id uTorrent was brought to replace it will it become open source as well?[/quote]
from the IRC discussion..
No, The uTorrent code base will remain closed source.
However, there will continue to be an open source reference implementation
Hm, Halite looks nice.
[quote comment="28487"]Hm, Halite looks nice.[/quote]
Just tried it and yeah, it might become the new open source utorrent in the future but uTorrent is still better.
More info about Halite and some reviews:
http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=514273
Amazing….
R.I.P utorrent !
“if u can’t beat them , join them”
[quote comment="28349"]DAM!
This may hurt as a long uTorrent fan.
I dont wanna have to leave it :’([/quote]
I agree…. :( im so dissapointed… We will see how this turns out..May not be a very tiny client for much longer..
i don’t think the buyout will not matter much against the light-weightness of utorrent. there will always be mainline for the open-source, savvy, richness version and utorrent will remain as the closed-source lightning speed resource-friendly client. i speculate that both will be running side by side catering loosely to different market tastes with just a little tendency to advertise bittorrent’s up and coming videostore concepts.
i wouldn’t give up hope on utorrent. i pray that it sustains and maintains its foundations – resource-friendliness, simplicity and speed.
You must have forgotten that ButTorrent is making deals with “the industry” i.e. Hollywood, RIAA, etc now. Now does it seem like a great thing to have happened to utorrent?
good…maybe now we can get utorrent for MAC!
that would rock!
utorrent sucks now, hands down
they sold out, they are no longer a good option for any of the “pirates” out there.
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