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Sweden Launches Criminal Probe of Pirate Bay Sale

Posted by Soulskill on from the coming-and-going dept.

uolamer writes with word that the Economic Crimes Bureau in Sweden has opened an investigation into the upcoming purchase of The Pirate Bay by Global Gaming Factory X. Quoting: "The Swedish newspaper SvD reported Saturday that authorities are looking for possible insider trading after Global Gaming's stock jumped a week before they announced plans to acquire The Pirate Bay. Trading of Global Gaming shares was halted by AktieTorget, a Swedish exchange, on Friday after officials there requested proof that Global Gaming had enough money to complete the sale. Global Gaming has yet to produce the required documentation. Until officials get the proof they need, they said they won't allow the stock to be traded again."

3 of 48 comments (clear)

  1. Stocks ROSE? by h4rm0ny · · Score: 4, Insightful


    Okay, I can believe in insider trading, it happens. But why on Earth would stocks rise on the news of such a numbskulled idea as buying the The Pirate Bay. Are investors that daft that they think this is a good idea? The Pirate Bay made money, not huge amounts but enough to make it worthwhile, by selling advertising without having to charge for product (they co-ordinated the downloading of other people's). How can this potential buyer possibly expect to make money from the site when they're no longer facillitating the downloading of copyrighted material? If they try to charge for their service, which is what elsewhere has been said is the intention, then they'll find the users of the Pirate Bay vanish in short order. People used it because they got stuff for free that they'd otherwise have had to pay for. That's not a market that you can suddenly slap a paid service on top of.

    Buying the Pirate Bay is a terrible business decision. They're better off being blocked from it by the courts if they don't have the sense not to themselves! ;)

    --

    Aide-toi, le Ciel t'aidera - Jeanne D'Arc.
    1. Re:Stocks ROSE? by Xemu · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Buying the Pirate Bay is a terrible business decision.

      Not so terrible if they bought the Pirate Bay for the purposes of manipulating the share price. The share price went up significantly, and for the "lucky" souls who bought before the announcement and sold on the news, this has been good business.

      However it didn't soar as much as the CEO expected. Part of the payment would be in the company's own stock, and that payment assumed a valuation of the company at 1 billion SEK. It's magnitudes less, around 60 million. And even that valuation is crazy, because the company is so poor that it doesn't even pay its debts.

      The company is very suspicous and the investors are either stupid or blind. At least one of the board members have left GGF since the deal was announced. The last two auditors left a "tainted" audit that they were not satisfied. The auditors also had to go to the government collection agency to even get paid. These are not signs of a healthy company.

      Classic pump and dump scam, I think.

      --
      Tell your friends about xenu.net
  2. Plans for profit on Web 3.0 by nostriluu · · Score: 3, Funny

    Their plan is to make money off the residue of what TPB was. Their projection is that bots and spiders alone will generate enough advertising dollars to pay for the sale. Also they are working on a co venture with The Onion to expand on http://thepiratebay.org/legal

    PS why is comment posting so horrible (Using Firefox on Linux). its laggy and loses focus (not me, the comment box). Just give me plain text, please.