Kik, the Canadian social media and messaging application company are considering shutting down its popular Kik messaging app.
It has been reported that in an article published on September 23, CTech Calcalistit, the Israeli tech publication, claims two anonymous sources at Kik, saying that the Canada-based firm is considering closing down its messaging app.
Hence, a consequent blog post by Ted Livingston, the CEO of Kik confirmed the reports, stating that the firm will shut down the Kik app, reduce its staff to 19 people and focus on it’s Kin (KIN) token’s development.
70 employees have reportedly received layoff notices and have been given the option to transfer to a new company that operates in the same sector.
Valid troubles
In a blog post, Livingston stated that Kik’s decisions to diminish and shut down its messenger were the result of the firm’s need to manage resources in a legal battle with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Likewise, Kik has been fighting its initial coin offering’s designation in court ever since the SEC accused the Canadian startup of an allegedly unregistered $100 million token offering.
<img src="https://www.cryptonewspoint.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/KIK-1.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-2197 lazyload" width="576" height="261" />
Ted Livingston
Steven Peikin, the Co-director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, said that at the time, by conducting its Kin tokens sale, Kik “deprived investors of information to which they were legally entitled and prevented investors from making informed investment decisions.”
Kik says SEC does not have strong evidence
It has been reported that Kik’s lawyers stated that the SEC took quotes out of context, twisted facts in order to support their allegations, and misrepresented the facts because they have no strong evidence to support their claims.
In the meantime, Kik launched a $5 million crypto initiative to fund its lawsuit against the SEC, which was taken over by the Blockchain Association, a collective of advocates involved with the blockchain industry.
Thus, it believes that the Blockchain Association “will be in the best position to objectively allocate the resources to the highest impact initiatives.”
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