Anger at LogMeIn's $110m LastPass buy; nbn COO Adcock departs; Twitter chops 8% of staff

Remote-access company LogMeIn has agreed to acquire password management service LastPass for US$110 million (about AU$150.1 million at time of announcement).

Under the terms of the deal, LogMeIn will pay US$110 million in cash for all outstanding equity interests in LastPass. LogMeIn will also pay up to an additional US$15 million in cash in contingent payments to equity holders and key LastPass employees upon the achievement of certain milestone and retention targets over the two years following the closing of the deal.

LogMeIn expects the deal to close in the coming weeks.

Once the deal is completed, LogMeIn plans to bring “complementary capabilities of its early identity management investments” into LastPass. This will include capabilities drawn from Meldium, which LogMeIn acquired last year.

In the short term, both LastPass and Meldium product lines will continue to be supported, a statement from LogMeIn said.

LogMeIn’s longer term plans “center around a singular identity management offering based on the LastPass service and brand”.

Following the announcement of the acquisition, LastPass users took to the company’s blog to voice their displeasure.

“Well that sucks,” one wrote.

“LogMeIn is probably one of the most unethical software companies in existence,” wrote another.

A third wrote: “This is too bad. While LogMeIn has good products, they have a bad reputation for customer service and pricing. I hope they don’t ruin what is a good thing with LastPass.”

LastPass CEO Joe Siegrist addressed the unrest regarding the acquisition, posting: “I want to personally assure you that this is good news for our users. First of all, we (LogMeIn/LastPass) have no plans to change our existing business model. Secondly, this acquisition provides us with access to resources that will enable us to innovate faster, as we continue to strive to deliver an even better product than the one you have come to know and love.

“It is also important to note that the current LastPass team is staying in place and remains committed to deliver on the promise of privacy, security and convenience that has been our mission since day one. I appreciate and am proud of the passion of our community, and we will continue to work hard to maintain your deep loyalty,” Siegrist wrote.

Adcock leaves nbn

Greg Adcock, chief operating officer at nbn, is leaving the organisation.

The company said that until he departs, Adcock will take an advisory role and report directly to the CEO, Bill Morrow.

Adcock has spent almost two years at the company, having joined in November 2013.

Morrow said: “We appreciate Greg’s contributions in advancing nbn and helping the company overcome many of the challenges it was facing in network delivery.”

Peter Ryan, previously executive general manager regional deployment at nbn, will take an interim role leading the company’s Network Engineering and Deployment function while a permanent replacement for Adcock is sought.

Twitter chops global workforce by 8%

Micro-blogging service Twitter plans to cut up to 336 jobs — about 8% of its global workforce — according to Bloomberg.

Most of the cuts will come from Twitter’s product and engineering departments, Bloomberg reported.

“The restructuring is part of an overall plan to organise around the company’s top product priorities and drive efficiencies throughout the company,” the AFR quoted Twitter as saying. “The company intends to reinvest savings in its most important priorities to drive growth.”

TIME posted a letter that Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey sent to his company’s employees about the cuts.

“[W]e have made an extremely tough decision: we plan to part ways with up to 336 people from across the company. We are doing this with the utmost respect for each and every person. Twitter will go to great lengths to take care of each individual by providing generous exit packages and help finding a new job,” Dorsey’s letter said.

Image courtesy Christiaan Colen under CC