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Owncloud US office shutting down - blames NextCloud
Owncloud company co-founder Frank Karlitschek left the company [cio.com] over some dispute how the interaction between ownCloud company and ownCloud community should interact. While Karlitschek, a long time KDE contributor and initiator of OwnCloud project, wanted to keep more control within the community and recognize their work more, the company tried to lead the community more tightly.
After the situation was no longer sustainable, Karlitschek left ownCloud together with a couple of other engineers, which are now also working on Nextcloud and for the newly founded German company Nextcloud [cio.com]. For the Nextcloud project, a foundation will be set up from the very beginning, to keep the project more independent from company influence.
For the US company owncloud, Inc. based in Lexington, MA, this announcement has some direct consequences [owncloud.com]:
Unfortunately, the announcement has consequences for ownCloud, Inc. based in Lexington, MA. Our main lenders in the US have cancelled our credit. Following American law, we are forced to close the doors of ownCloud, Inc. with immediate effect and terminate the contracts of 8 employees.
