New York-based blockchain startup R3 has held preliminary discussions with representatives from Ava Labs, the Solana Foundation and Adhara, according to people familiar with the matter. Those discussions have been going on for at least six months and include options such as a joint venture, a minority stake sale or an outright sale. Although its Corda technology is used by multiple real-time platforms such as the Swiss Stock Exchange's digital asset trading platform, some projects have not reached the testing phase, according to people familiar with the matter. The company laid off about a fifth of its workforce a year ago and now has 200 to 250 employees.