LastPass announced today that LogMeIn has acquired it. LogMeIn provides products like Hamachi, Cubby and one our favorite desktop sharing program for collaboration Join.me.
Apparently the deal was for $125 million in cash according to the LogMeIn investor post which says:
“LogMeIn will pay $110 million in cash upon close for all outstanding equity interests in LastPass, with up to an additional $15 million in cash payable in contingent payments which are expected to be paid to equity holders and key employees of LastPass upon the achievement of certain milestone and retention targets over the two-year period following the closing of the transaction.”
According to a statement by LastPass this means the two companies will be able to collaborate and combine technologies to create a better product.
"What does this mean for you as a LastPass user? Great things! We will continue to build and improve LastPass for our free, Premium, and Enterprise customers. Together with LogMeIn, we’ll be able to accomplish more, faster – providing an even better service to millions of people. As we become part of the LogMeIn family over the next several months, we’ll be releasing updates to LastPass, introducing new features, and continuing to grow the service as we work to bring LastPass to millions more who struggle with passwords."
While some of us here do use LastPass and are fond of it, LogMeIn has a habit of acquiring free services, then eventually end up charging for them to increase its profit margins.
Personally, I subscribe to the Premium version, which is only $12/year. However, I sure hope it doesn’t end up costing more in the end.
A lot of current users don’t seem to be happy with this deal and are expressing their frustration on Twitter and other social media outlets. It also looks like LastPass PR is attempting damage control, too. Here is just one example:
LastPass did have a minor security breach earlier this year and quickly recovered from it. But, it will be interesting to find out more about the interworking of this deal, and evaluate whether or not to trust the service.
Before panicking and killing your accounts, let’s see how this plays out. We’ll be keeping an eye on this one as far as the security aspect is concerned.
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