Canadian ASIC Chip Designer Squire Mining to Purchase CoinGeek for $45 Million
Vancouver-based Squire Mining is reportedly set to purchase CoinGeek, a crypto news publication and mining pool operator, for $45.3 million. As reported by Finance Magnates, the deal will make Squire Mining the world’s “largest, publicly traded Bitcoin miner.”
Squire Mining, whose market capitalization is of $35.4 million, has its shares traded on stock exchanges worldwide, and has been partnered with CoinGeek since August. Meanwhile, Bitmain, the biggest mining company in the world, is still waiting for approval to go public in Hong Kong.
The report says that under the terms of that deal, CoinGeek became the sole distributor of Squire Mining products. Squire Mining in turn is taking control of CoinGeek’s operations and employees, as well as 62,440 ASIC mining devices located on sites in Canada, the US, and Kazakhstan. These machines reportedly have a combined hash rate of around 1 million terrahashes per second, according to the documents made public by the company.
The deal also gives Squire Mining right of first refusal on other assets held by CoinGeek, valid for a year after the close of the deal.
Squire Mining CEO Taras Kulyk said:
“This transaction would provide Squire with a leading, recognized brand via the acquisition of the CoinGeek dot com and CoinGeek name, but it would also make us the largest, publicly traded Bitcoin miner globally. It is expected to deliver significant shareholder value by enabling Squire to become vertically integrated with our growing chip design and manufacturing business, which we would seek to have commercial within 2019.”
CoinGeek was purchased in August 2017 by Calvin Ayre, a controversial Canadian billionaire who made his fortune with an online gambling operation. Ayre was a big supporter of Bitcoin Cash, the cryptocurrency that hardforked off Bitcoin last year, and more recently became a big supporter of Bitcoin Satoshi Vision (SV), the spin-off of Bitcoin Cash.
Ayre began CoinGeek’s mining operation in January 2018 specifically to support the BCH blockchain, and it soon became the biggest contributor of computing power to this network. When the recent chain split, CoinGeek switched its power to processing transactions for Bitcoin SV.
Squire Mining’s acquisition of CoinGeek is reportedly dependent on various factors. If it goes go through Calvin Ayre, through the Antiguan Corporation Bigfoot Holdings Group, is set to control over 126 million of Squire’s shares, “representing approximately 53.3% of the issued and outstanding Squire common shares.”
Commenting on the move Ayre noted he believes the “next phase of growth for this industry is upon us and that means massive scaling of the Bitcoin blockchain.”
“By vending my mining and CoinGeek branded assets into Squire, I would be doubling-down on my commitment to Bitcoin’s success. These assets would enable Squire Mining Ltd to compete at a global level to pave a path for enterprise usage of blockchain technology to flourish,” he said.
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