HQ Trivia app will ‘live on’ after all, CEO says

The quizzes will live on — maybe. 

Four days after announcing that HQ Trivia would be shutting down for good, the company’s CEO now says the trivia app will “live on,” provided the company is able to finalize an acquisition with another unnamed buyer. 

“Friday was a very hard day,” HQ founder Rus Yusupov wrote on Twitter. “HQ ran out of cash, there was a potential acquisition of the company which fell through abruptly, and worst of all, we couldn’t afford even severance for the 25 employees it pained me to let go.

“I spent the weekend on the phone finding a new buyer and do [sic] right by everyone. We have found a new home for HQ, with a company that wants to keep it running. All employees, contractors and players are top priority. Severance will be paid and you will be able to cash out.”

It’s not clear who the new buyer is and Yusupov wrote that it’s “not a done deal yet.” The company didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Yusupov did hint at future changes for the trivia app under potential new ownership, saying that “we should expect HQ to go through some changes, especially to cover expenses, and be less buggy.”

If HQ is able to continue under new ownership, the big question facing the company will be whether it can maintain its audience of trivia fans. HQ’s live game shows propelled the app to the top of the App Store in 2017, but the app’s early success was short-lived. 

The company also grappled with internal chaos. Yusupov was initially forced to step down from the CEO role, only to take it back after co-founder Colin Kroll died of a drug overdose in 2018. Last year, longtime HQ host, Scott Rogowsky, left the company amid tensions with Yusupov — tensions that evidently still exist.

“HQ didn’t die of natural causes,” Rogowsky tweeted. “It was poisoned with a lethal cocktail of incompetence, arrogance, short-sightedness & sociopathic delusion.”