AfterDawn: Tech news

BitTorrent cuts staff, replaces CEO again

Written by James Delahunty @ 10 Nov 2008 12:29 User comments (4)

BitTorrent cuts staff, replaces CEO again BitTorrent Inc. has had a rough year. The company looking to make revenue from Bram Cohen's file sharing software is just another company struggling in today's turbulent economic climate. The company announced on Firday that it cut about half of its staff, and replaced its CEO Doug Walker. The company already experienced a 22% layoff back in August this year.
Eric Klinker, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) has been named as Walker's replacement. He has "two decades of networking, content delivery, and management experience." Walker had left Alias Systems just last year to take up the CEO position at BitTorrent.

"Klinker has...been instrumental to the continued development of the BitTorrent client, BitTorrent's Delivery Network Accelerator (DNA) content delivery service, BitTorrent's Software Development Kit (SDK) and BitTorrent's proprietary advanced congestion control technology. The latter has been at the center of BitTorrent's influential discussions and well-publicized collaboration with Comcast Corporation, as it seeks to deploy a protocol-agnostic network management solution." A BitTorrent statement read.



According to the Times, the company is planning to shut down its BitTorrent Entertainment Network media store.

Previous Next  

4 user comments

110.11.2008 01:02

yep, you sold yourself out to the RIAA/MPAA. Now your paying for it.

reminds me of a song (you don't know what you got till its gone,cut down a forest to put up a parking lot)

210.11.2008 01:24

Yeah, it's bad everywhere now.
Our (American) company laid off over a thousand people when it looked inevitable that Obama would win.
In BitTorrent's case, it's not that surprising, though.
They never had a realistic business model and their profit motive wasn't there.

This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 10 Nov 2008 @ 1:28

310.11.2008 17:22

Originally posted by DXR88:
yep, you sold yourself out to the RIAA/MPAA. Now your paying for it.

reminds me of a song (you don't know what you got till its gone,cut down a forest to put up a parking lot)
Off topic, isn't it "paved paradise and put up a parking lot"?
Or maybe there's another version I haven't heard. Dunno.

410.11.2008 18:23

Quote:
Off topic, isn't it "paved paradise and put up a parking lot"?
Or maybe there's another version I haven't heard. Dunno.
Why Yes, Yes it is. u sir deserve a cookie.

Comments have been disabled for this article.

Latest news

Sony suspends memory card sales because memory chips are simply not available Sony suspends memory card sales because memory chips are simply not available (28 Mar 2026 6:49)
Sony has announced that it is temporarily suspending the sale of memory cards used in mobile phones and digital cameras, among other things. The company states that the reason is problems with the availability of memory chips.
Austria plans to ban social media for under 14 year olds Austria plans to ban social media for under 14 year olds (28 Mar 2026 6:17)
Austria is planning to ban social media for children under 14. The reform aims to protect children from harmful effects and addictions, but at the same time, it is problematic from a privacy perspective.
TP-Link urges users to update their routers - several vulnerabilities patched TP-Link urges users to update their routers - several vulnerabilities patched (26 Mar 2026 1:56)
Serious security vulnerabilities have been discovered in several TP-Link router models, for which patches were released at the end of March 2026. The company urges users to update their router software immediately.
Google: The feared Q-Day is now expected to happen in 2029 Google: The feared Q-Day is now expected to happen in 2029 (25 Mar 2026 4:32)
Google has advanced its estimate of when current forms of encryption will become insecure. The moment is called Q-Day, or Quantum Day, when the computational power of quantum computers will be sufficient to break currently used encryptions.
OpenAI shuts down its AI video service Sora OpenAI shuts down its AI video service Sora (24 Mar 2026 6:28)
OpenAI has decided to shut down Sora, its AI video creator, just months after its release. The decision is due to issues such as copyright problems and the deepfake phenomenon.

News archive