LogMeIn Expands Identity Management Service with Acquisition of LastPass
LogMeIn has just acquired the password management and single sign on suite LastPass for a deal worth between $110M and $125M. The deal will reportedly be an all cash deal, with LogMeIn wanting to expand its reach into the identity management services market. LogMeIn is a popular cloud based identity management services, giving organizations the ability to identify enterprise users regardless of the methods they use to connect to your network.
Sources say that LastPass will not be fully absorbed into the LogMeIn platform. LastPass will likely keep its own name and branding while operating as a service of LogMeIn. In fact, the LastPass team will work as a business unit under the LogMeIn corporate entity. As part of the deal, LogMeIn will acquire over 7M users that currently utilize LastPass. Not only does that mean LogMeIn will be able to provide LastPass services, LogMeIn will also get the ability to cross promote products that help introduce the best practices for identity management for your organization using the cloud.
“LastPass has a great business, a beloved and award winning product, millions of loyal users, and thousands of great business customers – they are synonymous with the category,” says Michael Simon, the CEO of LogMeIn.
“We believe this transaction instantly gives us a market leading position in password management, while also providing a highly favorable foundation for delivering the next generation of identity and access management solutions to individuals, teams and companies,” Simon added.
The password management market isn’t going anywhere soon. Although new authentication techniques are being developed all the time, the password will likely remain as one of the staples of identifying your users for the foreseeable future. When decision makers look at the costs associated with emerging identification products versus asking the user to create a strong password, most organizations will simply go with the cheaper option of asking users adhere to strict password management policies while utilizing cloud based identity management suites such as LastPass and LogMeIn on the backend of their operations.
