Esports social media startup Juked will stay available to users as its management team reviews three acquisition opportunities, CEO Ben Goldhaber announced on Twitter Friday evening.
That said, the company is almost out of funding and plans to sacrifice a ‘significant chunk’ of the app’s utility in the meantime to keep Juked afloat. This is expected to affect match results, push notifications and updates.
Two of the startup’s employees will also be temporarily furloughed in order to save costs as the company negotiates a deal to bring in revenue.
Goldhaber explained that the company now faces a variety of options with potential new owners. One possibility is a full acquisition that keeps the Juked app running in its current state and facilitates further development.
Another, more damning recourse would see Juked sold as a ‘tech sale’, This would involve the acquisition of specific parts of the company’s tech platform for a lower price. It likely would not allow Juked to continue in its current state.
The news is a somewhat positive outcome following the revelation on September 24th that Juked was facing serious financial trouble if it failed to find an acquirer by October 7th.
Goldhaber’s almost unprecedented blog post at the time blamed high-interest rates, a poor economic environment, and rising scepticism around esports startups for Juked’s economic woes. However, Goldhaber commented that he still believed in Juked’s potential to be good for the esports community if it manages to fulfil its development goals.
Despite this announcement, Juked’s future, and in particular the fate of its development and content teams, is still looking uncertain. With no clear deadline for the acquisition to close, the esports industry waits to see whether the startup — which has already seen three investment rounds — will continue.
