No One Is Going to Defend Boiler Room
After a year of unceasing protests and a looming round of substantial layoffs, the streaming giant appears to be in real trouble—and has remarkably few allies advocating for its continued existence.
In October 2021, Boiler Room was acquired by DICE. Although the sale price wasn’t announced at the time, a November 2022 earnings report revealed that DICE paid just over £6.065 million in exchange for “100% ownership and voting power” of the streaming platform.
During the first weeks of 2025, Boiler Room was sold a second time, this time to UK festival conglomerate Superstruct. Once again, the purchase amount was left out of the initial announcement, but in a March 2025 earnings report, Superstruct stated that the acquisition was made for “a consideration of £25 million.”
In less than four years, DICE effectively quadrupled its initial investment, and while that sort of explosive growth in valuation wasn’t necessarily justified by Boiler Room’s internal accounting figures, it ultimately didn’t matter. Superstruct, which itself had been acquired by private equity giant KKR for €1.3 billion just a few months prior, was willing to shell out £25 million, a price that sure seems to reflect a level of genuine excitement on their part. The sale announcement included a statement from co-founder Roderik Schlösser (who was also Superstruct’s CEO at the time) which said, “Boiler Room is in the best position it has ever been and we are excited to support them in their promising future ahead.”
Schlösser stepped aside this past April, giving way to Alex Mahon—who’d previously served as the CEO of UK broadcaster Channel 4—but it’s a safe bet that the entire Superstruct team is feeling a lot less excited about Boiler Room today. According to a news report by Resident Advisor, the streaming platform yesterday informed its employees that a substantial round of layoffs, one that would affect “a number of roles” and “some of the best people [Boiler Room has] ever had,” is about to take place. Exact figures are not yet known, but with a company-wide meeting addressing “changes to the structure of the business” scheduled to take place today, it’s fair to assume that A) a significant number of employees are about to get their walking papers and B) Boiler Room is in serious trouble.
Certain corners of the internet—especially the hub of anonymously run social media accounts that have made attacking Boiler Room the primary focus of their activism during the past year or so—are all but guaranteed to openly celebrate this development. But even among those who elect to stay quiet about what’s happening, the prospect of Boiler Room hitting the skids, or maybe even shutting its doors (eventually) is unlikely to inspire many tears.