LastPass acquired by LogMeIn

LastPass, my favorite cloud-based password manager, was acquired by LogMeIn on October 9, 2015.

The news was not well-received by the vocal minority, based on comments on the LastPass blog posting of the announcement. LogMeIn does not have a good track record with products they acquire. Their LogMeIn Free product, which they promised would remain free after they acquired it some years ago, was completely removed from the "free" list in January 2014 and is now a pay-only product.

This LogMeIn Free incident really ticked a lot of people off. Obviously, things can change for a company, and something made LogMeIn decide that their free product would no longer be free. But the way they did it was not very consumer friendly.

Incidentally, LogMeIn acquired another product many years ago called Hamachi, which allows you to create a private network among multiple computers. I use the free Hamachi, in combination with TeamViewer, to do tech support for friends and family. LogMeIn changed this product as well, several times over the years, and reduced it's capability significantly. The free product still meets my needs, but the changes they made rubbed many people the wrong way.

Anyway, I digress. After letting the news of the LastPass acquisition settle in for a few days and reading and listening to many of the experts out there, here's my take on things.

Don't panic! If you're using LastPass now, it's perfectly fine to continue using it. I am. It's still one of the best password management solutions out there. While nothing is 100% safe, it's the best option out there right now. The free product is great, but why the heck aren't you a LastPass Premium user? At $12/year, it's an absolute steal. Shhhh...don't tell LastPass, but I'd pay twice that annually for the value I get from LastPass.

Finally, below is a video from the Security Now podcast I follow regularly. Last week the hosts Steve Gibson and Leo Laporte talked about the acquisition for about 30 minutes with Joe Siegrist, CEO and Founder of LastPass. Joe seems sincere in his intentions to allow LastPass to continue down the current path they are on with the free model. Only time will tell if Joe continues to dictate the direction of LastPass and if LogMeIn allows him to do the same.