BitTorrent Throttling Company Sandvine Sees Sales Down 88%
Written by enigmax on March 07, 2008Sandvine, manufacturers of BitTorrent throttling technology has seen its first quarter sales drop 88% in a year. After achieving 42,000% growth in 5 years, the company - best known for providing the technology which put Comcast into the spotlight recently - has seen its value plummet 42% in a single day.
When Comcast introduced the Sandvine traffic shaping solution, it hoped it could quietly interfere with its customer’s BitTorrent activities without getting too much attention. Unfortunately for them, their actions didn’t go unnoticed, and during August last year we broke the news that this ISP does indeed mess with it’s customers internet connections.
Since then, things have gone from bad to worse for Comcast, as their customers started to realize that this ISP wasn’t giving them what they paid for. As a result, Comcast are now being sued and annoyed users formed a coalition to challenge the company to try to claim compensation. All of this is on top of a FCC hearing which deemed that Comcast uses ‘hacker-techniques’ to interrupt BitTorrent traffic, techniques which are employed via the traffic management ’solution’ from Sandvine. Essentially, the Sandvine system allows Comcast to inject forged reset packets into BitTorrent transfers which makes seeding impossible - good news for ISPs who don’t want to give their customers the bandwidth they paid for, but bad news for BitTorrent, and even worse news for supporters of Internet neutrality.
However, it is the very fact that Sandvine allows ISPs like Comcast to disrupt their customer’s activities which prompted the recent Federal Communications Commission hearings. The FCC warned Comcast that it will not allow it to disrupt internet traffic, which is of course a major concern for other ISPs considering investing in the Sandvine system. According to a G&M report, it is this hesitancy over net neutrality issues, coupled with problems major telecoms companies are experiencing when trying to refinance their debts, that have hit Sandvine hard. A survey by financial services outfit Canaccord Adams suggest that the top 40 global communications companies are all currently extremely wary over capital expenditure.
After achieving astronomical growth of 42,000% in just 5 years, Sandvine is really feeling the pressure as on the Toronto Stock Exchange its stock fell a massive 42%, to a low of $1.55. The company already predicted lower performance and revised its revenue estimates back in December 2007. Unfortunately these predictions were still too optimistic as the company has announced that the actual revenue this year is likely to be a further 20% lower than the revised figures. Sales for the first quarter will be $8.2m, an 88% drop on the previous year while full year revenue is expected to be around $80m, down from the December 2007 prediction of $110m.
All this adds up to an annual growth of 15%, versus last year’s growth of 132%.
At best, that means annual growth of just 15 per cent, compared with 132 per cent a year earlier.
Dave Caputo, Sandvine’s President and Chief Executive Officer said in a statement: “We believe that the delays have come about for a variety of reasons, ranging from unique customer-specific circumstances to economic conditions, making operators pause before executing on their approved budgets. We can’t dictate when customers make their decisions, just influence whether they choose Sandvine - and we remain as confident as ever in our ability to do that.”
With BitTorrent developers hard at work creating Sandvine-busting code, time will tell if Mr Caputo’s confidence continues into 2009.
Previously: Dutch University Uses BitTorrent to Update Workstations
Next: Lessig Questions Pirate Party’s Existence
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I very sincerely hope that not only Sandvine will perish but that everyone involved will die a slow agonizing death. It’s just what fits them best.
[quote comment="306859"]the ones who abuse the ISP service the most…[/quote]
…are actually paying their hard earned for the service. Why exactly shouldn’t we get what we pay for? High management of Comcast and the likes of them should look in dictionary for the word “honesty”. Because they have no clue about it.
[quote comment="306859"]And Sandvine most definitely won’t go bankcrupt.[/quote]
And also pigs will fly? Yeah, sure.
/sarcasm off
ProdigyDancer,
I won’t even ask what the nickname is for… so do you know Ryan… you two seem to have much in common.
If you don’t like Comcast so much then leave. Fact is less then 5% of all users account for over HALF the bandwidth consumed at any one time. That doesn’t seem very fair to me.
The guy that invented this stupid protocol even said in a recent interview he designed BitTorrent to be unusually sloppy with its use of bandwidth. He thought it was funny… you know screw the ISPs.
So finally an ISP has the balls to enforce the agreement YOU signed when you signed up for the service and all you can do is bitch like a little school girl and wish people into bankruptcy.
What is even funnier are you loosers whinning about net neutrality… what… you going to pull that freedom of speach crap again?
PULLLEEEEZZZ!!!
Here’s the deal Nancy… quit Comcast and get another service and sshut the fuck up…
Now fetch me a drink before I have Gilligan come over there and kick your ass…
[quote comment="307957"]ProdigyDancer,
If you don’t like Comcast so much then leave.
freedom of speach crap[/quote]
Neither do I use Comcast (heck, I don’t live in America at all) nor do I have anything to discuss with people who advocate those fraudsters and say that freedom of speech is crap.
So please, just go and lick your masters’ asses. Maybe they’ll throw a bone to you for being a good doggie.
[quote comment="305775"][quote comment="305740"]
Traffic shaping isn’t bad, corporations had it for ages. It’s when a large greedy company uses it to NOT give customers what they paid for.[/quote]
And Sandvine is an innocent party in all of this? Give me a fucking break, you little tool.
If Sandvine didn’t offer Bittorrent throttling using forged RST packets in the first place, then large greedy companies couldn’t use that service to screw over their customers.
I detect the aroma of COCK in your breath.
As for Sandvine… That’s one more shrimp on the barbie. Have fun sizzling right next to MediaDefender and the rest of its sleazy ilk; That’s your fate for joining the war to end filesharing, a goal which is truly synonymous with the word “futile”.[/quote]
Is Flaming Necessary? Can’t You Express Yourself W/Out Flaming???
After 1 F Word For Every 3 You Type I Don’t Even Feel Like Reading To See If You Really Have A Point Or Not.
Don’t Be So White Trash ‘N’ Gather A Decent Vocabulary. U Know?
Besides The Guy Made Sense. Just Cuz He Didn’t Say It Your Way Didn’t Make Him Wrong U’re A Tool…Nice Flaming.
[quote comment="306338"]Bye bye Comcast! Hope you all rot in hell. Same goes with Time Warner cable![/quote]
I Agree…Time Warner Is Going To Get Hurt For Playing W/ Fire.
I’m So Anxious Waiting For ‘Em To Do The Move [I've Already Returned 1 Box W/Remote 'N' Downgraded To Basic Garbage Plan.] Once They Make Their Move, I’ll Cancel My Services…Cable ‘N’ Internet. Switch To Satellite Internet.
But I’ll Leave ‘Em Something To Remember Me…
They Have Injected Me With Poison To My Traffic…I’ve Injected ‘Em With More Than “400 GB” Of Data Transfers [Uploads/Seeding] Alone.
If Understand The Benefits Of Digitalized Media. IPTV VOIP ‘N’ IT Radio Among Others…Dump Time Warner Verizon, Etc…They ‘R’ The Next Snake To Come Out The Grass.
I’ll Be By The Watter By Then…
serves them right…lolll
I cant wait untill all this stupid shit stops… i mean come on do they really thing they can stop pirating the only way they can do that is by breaking rules or by making up some rediculous contract of some sort that will go against rules and force this shit on people. Right now im waiting for Verizon Fios to come in my neighbor hood and so far ive only seen and heard the best from it. Fuck comcast but fucking verizon dsl even more :( comcast still blows it away trust me.
If you want to buy liability/problems this is a good investment…
Or you could upgrade your network…
[quote comment="306281"]Why the heck are you with Bell Canada? Switch to a decent ISP like MyCybernet or something.[/quote]
fyi… mycybernet sucks. while i’m sure its better than bell, there service is horrible and they don’t/can’t fix problems when you do have them and you’re pretty much on your own. i’d suggest someone a little more reputable who can actually solve your problems instead of just saying “it’s not our fault”
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