BitTorrent Bubbles Up

Finally, there is a start-up that just may become the next gigantic tech IPO. I mean, on the scale of eBay or Amazon.com (AMZN Quote) in the 1990s or, more recently, Google .

Don't laugh: It's BitTorrent.

Yes, I know. There are plenty of obstacles between BitTorrent, the maker of lightning-fast file-sharing software, and the public markets. The software is seen as the tool of choice for those pesky music and movie pirates, its not as intuitive to use as other peer-to-peer programs, and, like Napster before it, it risks being sued into oblivion.

But BitTorrent has been quietly working during the past year to become more palatable to the mainstream. Above all, it's been working with major content companies to show its technology can help replenish their profits, rather than deplete them.

And with YouTube taken out of the running by Google and social networking sites like Facebook starting to lose the youthful allure they had even a few months ago, there aren't a lot of strong candidates left. BitTorrent may be a dark horse, but if it can overcome the hurdles before it, it's a horse that could deliver remarkable returns in short order.

On Wednesday, according to tech news blogs GigaOm and TechCrunch, BitTorrent received $25 million in funding in a private investment round led by Accel Partners (which has backed companies such as Macromedia and RealNetworks in the past). Neither the company nor its reported investors have made a formal announcement.