CEO Ted Livingston of Kik — the once-popular messaging app — announced that the company is shutting down the Kik messaging application and focusing entirely on its Kin cryptocurrency, TheVerge.com reported. It’s an effort for the company to save money as it battles the Securities and Exchange Commission over whether its initial coin offering (ICO) should count as a security. The SEC alleges that the company was using the $100 million Kin ICO as a last bid “hail Mary” to try to turn things around after a decline in popularity. Livingston notes that in order to continue fighting the SEC, the company is taking three actions: shutting down Kik entirely, firing over 100 employees to reduce the company to “an elite 19 person team,” and focusing exclusively on “converting Kin users into Kin buyers.”
