The cloud gaming pioneer has endured an
interesting weekend, with initial reports on Friday claiming the company was shutting down. Staff were informed at a meeting they were being let go, with the company entering into "assignment for the benefit of creditors", which is essentially a form of bankruptcy. All the assets of
OnLive were sold to Lauder Partners, with almost half of the current staff receiving employment offers at their current salaries.
The new company also intends to employ new staff, retain all current services as well as announce new products and partnership announcements in the future.
The new company will retain the OnLive name, with a statement just released confirming the details:
OnLive, the pioneer of instant-action cloud computing, announced today that on August 17th all of its assets were acquired by a newly formed company that will continue to operate under the OnLive name. The OnLive® Game and Desktop Services, all OnLive Devices and Apps, as well as all OnLive partnerships, are expected to continue without interruption and all customer purchases will remain intact; users are not expected to notice any change whatsoever. OnLive's current initiatives will continue as well, with major announcements of new products and services planned in the coming weeks and months. An affiliate of Lauder Partners was the first investor in the newly-structured company, holding the view that OnLive is the future of computing and entertainment, and a passion to see OnLive's breakthrough technology continue to grow and evolve. The new company structure enables OnLive to do so.
OnLive, Inc.'s board of directors, faced with difficult financial decisions for OnLive, Inc., determined that the best course of action was a restructuring under an "Assignment for the Benefit of Creditors." The assignee of the company's assets then sold all of OnLive, Inc.'s assets (including its technology, intellectual property, etc.) to the new company. Unfortunately neither OnLive, Inc. shares nor OnLive staff could transfer under this type of transaction, but almost half of OnLive's staff were given employment offers by the new company at their current salaries immediately upon the transfer, and the non-hired staff will be given offers to do consulting in return for options in the new company. Upon closing additional funding, the company plans to hire more staff, both former OnLive employees as well as new employees.
The OnLive Service has been in operation 24/7 without interruption since its launch over two years ago, and is expected to continue to operate smoothly under the new company. All games, products and services remain available, and the company has new product and partnership announcements on the way.
OnLive's breakthrough instant-action cloud computing technology has been in development for over a decade and, despite immense skepticism, OnLive successfully deployed this highly disruptive technology as a polished consumer offering with commercial-grade reliability across a vast range of devices, including TVs, tablets, phones, PCs and Macs, connected over almost any Internet connection, including wireless and cellular.
Only a few major corporations have ever developed and deployed products and services across such a broad spectrum. OnLive is rare among startups in both the depth and scope of its offerings.
The asset acquisition, although a heartbreaking transition for everyone involved with OnLive, allows the company's core innovation and ongoing offerings–the product of over a decade of hard work transforming the OnLive vision into reality–to survive-and continue to evolve.