Remember LimeWire? It rose to fame in the late 90’s as a file sharing service similar to the original Napster. Soon after that it was sued into oblivion and shut down, only to be resurrected a few times in name only. In its most recent reincarnation they have modeled itself as a studio for creators. Now it’s getting into generative AI with the purchase of BlueWillow “a popular generative AI image creation platform that competes with services like Midjourney and Stable Diffusion.” according to an article on TechCrunch today.
Here’s a passage from the article that I find most interesting:
“Financial terms of the deal are not being disclosed, but the acquisition will not include any of the talent working at BlueWillow. Ritankar Das, the founder and head of the company, said in an interview that the team that built BlueWillow are advising LimeWire on the platform in a transitionary period, but that they plan to eventually leave, en masse, to work on a new AI venture that is still in stealth.”
So essentially LimeWire is purchasing a product with a little bit of consulting services from the Founders, who are then ALL leaving to work on another stealth startup. Gotta love those serial entrepreneurs!
After relaunching as a studio for creators, LimeWire acquires BlueWillow, a Midjourney competitor