

Megaupload Worked On A Multi-Billion Dollar IPO - llambda
http://torrentfreak.com/megaupload-worked-on-a-multi-billion-dollar-ipo-120417/

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Xylakant
If this is true, the whole case just got one notch more interesting. And IPO
would mean that the company and it's business model would have to be vetted by
lawyers and bank people, that's something someone with an illegal business
model could not be interested in. So it could be cited as a fact that
megaupload genuinely tried to have a legit (maybe shady) business.

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hef19898
If I remember well, there were rumors that Megaupload had plans for some
streaming service of its content too (fact check me on that please). That
would have been a threat to almost everyone in this sector, so I can imagine
that some people were a little bit worried about a company like Megaupload
becoming public. After that they would have been a member of the club, have a
load of cash after the IPO and have a product and content to offer, I can
imagine quite a few names who wouldn't have been happy with that.

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gee_totes
Fact check:

Megaupload was working on something called Megabox, which was a "DIY artist
distribution service that would have completely disrupted the music industry."
-- Tech Crunch [http://techcrunch.com/2012/01/24/was-megaupload-targeted-
bec...](http://techcrunch.com/2012/01/24/was-megaupload-targeted-because-of-
its-upcoming-megabox-digital-jukebox-service/)

Opinion/Theories:

I sincerely believe that Mega Upload was working on this product, as they were
making connections with legit, mainstream artists. For example:

-Swiss Beatz was the CEO of megaupload at the time of the shutdown (although he had just been named CEO 24 hours before) [http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/swizz-beatz-revealed-...](http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/swizz-beatz-revealed-as-silent-partner-ceo-of-megaupload-20120119)

-Remember the Megaupload Mega Song that was taken down by UMG? Among the featured artists were Kanye West, Snoop Dogg, will.i.am, P. Diddy, Chris Brown. Here is the video, the song is actually pretty terrible: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9caPFPQUNs>

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hef19898
Yep, that's it! Thanks! And takes a lot foil hatiness out of my intial post.
:-)

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nextparadigms
I wonder if being a public company would've made it a lot harder for the US
gov to call it "organized crime" or something silly like that.

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alan_cx
Not being an American I might have missed a huge example of the opposite, but
I haven't seen the US gov shut down and destroy a public company. Sue them,
yes, but destroy, no. So, presumably, had Megaupload gone public, my guess is
that it would still exist, while being sued. It would still have resources to
defend its self. What has happened here, or what was attempted here was the
destruction of a business and the removal of its ability to fight back. I cant
see that happening to a public company.

OK, Megaupload can be argued to be shady, but surely the action against is is
equally shady.

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hga
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3529331>

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darksaga
Saying because you want to go public, your company is legit is a pretty weak
argument to me.

There have been plenty of "shady" companies who've gone public. The one that
comes to mind most recently is Weedmaps:

<http://bit.ly/ILSmST>

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aw3c2
Above obfuscated link is spam to some social news website.

Actual link is [http://motherjones.com/mojo/2010/12/popular-marijuana-
compan...](http://motherjones.com/mojo/2010/12/popular-marijuana-company-goes-
public)

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pbreit
How much of Megaupload's usage is downloading copyrighted content?

This article is a little corny. "multi-billion $ IPO" and "reverse IPO" are
mutually exclusive. The author spends most of the time talking about
accountants and bankes when the primary issue is legal. And the author fails
to recognize that such a tenuous business would have a hard time finding
investors.

