With OnLive heavily rumored to be declaring bankruptcy and laying huge numbers of staff off according to a multiple sources, a new rumor from Engadget claims that a mysterious 3rd party is buying what remains of the company.
The site allegedly spoke with “a (now former) employee of the gaming service”, who corroborated reports that there was a surprise meeting in the morning where the CEO announced a massive staff layoff. This time, the source says that “at least 50 percent of the staff” were laid off. No severance will be offered to those laid off and stock holdings are apparently worth nothing.
Now here’s the interesting bit – “the move apparently comes as OnLive is being purchased by an unknown party. Those being kept on have reportedly received offer letters from the new company.”
The source believes the move is due to the high operating costs of a cloud company, which it claims are around $5 million a month. But who could, and would, buy out such a company? Google, Valve, Sony, EA (for Origin), Gamestop, Apple, Samsung and more are possibilities, but the obvious candidate would be Microsoft, who is under pressure to prepare for Sony’s inevitable cloud moves with Gaikai. To find out what we think a Microsoft buyout could mean, stick around for a special episode of Daily Reaction.
