Music Ally

Yet more bad news for the Pirate Bay acquisition – would-be purchaser Global Gaming Factory X has been delisted from the Swedish Aktietorget exchange for violating its transparency principles – this, after its shares were suspended a couple of weeks ago.

“The alleged infringements have been serious. hey give a systematic impression of a lack of accountability and of an almost casual and unsuspecting approach to the disclosure requirements,” says a statement from the exchange.

With GGF planning to part-pay for The Pirate Bay with shares, the deal looks in even more doubt. CEO Hans Pandeya remains strapped to the wheel, though, telling TorrentFreak that the deal will go through. “We will be closing the deal within the next two weeks,” he says. Righto.

More doubt has been cast on Global Gaming Factory X’s chances of completing its purchase of The Pirate Bay this week as planned – by its proposed technology partner Peerialism, which it’s also due to buy.

CEO Johan Ljungberg says that last week’s shareholders meeting “gave us no direct answer at all, but based on declarations by GGF before and after the meeting, and the reporting that has taken place in recent days, we conclude that GGF will not succeed in obtaining any financing.”

He also points out that GGF’s caim that it will use its own shares as collateral for the financing will run into trouble, because trading in them is currently suspended on the Swedish Aktietorget exchange. Meanwhile, Swedish media are reporting that Global Gaming Factory X boss Hans Pandeya has had his motorbike and car seized by bailiffs, as part of his personal tax debt. Not the best start to the week, it’s fair to say.

Swedish firm Global Gaming Factory X says its purchase of The Pirate Bay WILL go ahead, having secured the approval of the company’s shareholders. This, despite investors in the deal withdrawing their backing in recent days.

CEO Hans Pandeya told a press conference that it will take 7-10 days for the deal to complete, and that “when the domain name comes over to us, at that moment it will be a legal site.” This may raise eyebrows, given that earlier this week, GGF’s proposed technology partner Peerialism said it had not been paid, nor had it started the necessary preparatory work.

Pandeya seems undaunted: PaidContent reports that he’s still claiming that GGF is “very close to an agreement with a major music company… one of the world’s largest”. Meanwhile, GGF’s shares remain suspended from the Swedish Aktietorget exchange pending a disciplinary committee meeting to decide whether to delist the company – which could prove an obstacle for the acquisition.

Still, GGF has the green light to proceed. Now it’s just got to sort those rights…

There were more revelations this weekend about the would-be buyer of The Pirate Bay, Global Gaming Factory. It started with Sweden’s Economic Crimes Bureau launching an investigation into possible insider trading the week before the deal was originally announced.

A sharp spike in the company’s share price in the days before the announcement had raised eyebrows at the time. Meanwhile, Napster co-founder John Fanning has also come forward to say he DIDN’T table a $10 million bid for The Pirate Bay, as was claimed by GGF earlier this month.

“I thought it was harmless, but misleading,” he’s quoted as telling a Swedish newspaper. The issue is whether there was also suspicious trading activity in the days leading up to the press release about Fanning’s bid.

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