According to a company’s blog post, LastPass is now under the LogMeIn Umbrella for $110 million. The Boston-based IT management services provider LogMeIn said that the acquisition is necessary for the company to expand its line of identity and access-related products and services.
The final terms of the agreement would be established in the following weeks, the two companies announced. LastPass users will still benefit from support in the near term. Gradually, LastPass would introduce new products and services from its now-parent company LogMeIn, including a team password manager called Meldium.
LastPass will not ditch its ongoing projects, and its team promised that it would continue to improve the products. About 7 million users use the company’s award-winning product LastPass.
Michael Simon, chief executive of LogMeIn said that the merger may help the company gain leading position on password management market, and help with the development of other revolutionary access management solutions on the long run.
LastPass CEO Joe Siegrist told users that the acquisition was “good news” since the company would not change its policies and business model. The agreement is necessary for the company to gain access to new sources and “innovate faster,” Siergist added.
LastPass offers a freemiun service that allows you to remember all your passwords with zero effort. You only need a browser add-on to access the service and a master password. The add-on encrypts and saves passwords for all types of sites. The service also boosts security online because people can now use different password without the fear that they may forget them.
This summer, LastPass was eyed by a team of hackers. Although there was no breach, the company urged users to update their master passwords to make sure that their data isn’t compromised.
Analysts said that the recent acquisition shows that password management business has great potential despite emerging technologies that promise password-free access to online data. Experts explained that password managers are cheaper and easier to use than those technologies, so users are less likely to make the switch anytime soon.
Tech experts that use the LastPass service said that the company offers “good enough” security to keep them loyal fans. The experts do not believe that biometrics and other access management technologies stand a real chance against traditional passwords.
Cyber security analysts noted that fingerprints are easier to replicate than traditional passwords. Plus, passwords are not rejected by software like biometric data sometimes is.
Image Source: Wikimedia