Kape Technologies Agrees to Buy ExpressVPN for $936 Million

Kape Technologies Plc agreed to buy ExpressVPN in a $936 million deal that will more than double the cybersecurity company's customer base and expand its tools for private web surfing. Bloomberg reports: Kape will pay $354 million in cash when the deal closes and the equivalent of $237 million in shares, which can be sold after a 24-month lockup, the company said in a statement on Monday. Another $345 million in cash will be paid in two installments, 12 months and 24 months after the close. The deal still needs approval from regulators.

Re:

[DontBeAMoran]

Tentacle Grape?

Nevermind

[backslashdot]

Well, that was close. I typed up this long rant about how we should not be allowing this kind of sickening technology and then realized I read the title wrong.

God damn it - Kape are sleazebags

[Sarusa]

I liked Lastpass, then it got bought by sleazebags (and I moved to KeePass). I like ExpressVPN and now it gets bought by this sleazy British/Israeli 'security' firm with a sordid history. Crossrider/Kape was co-founded by an Israeli surveilance agent and a billionaire convicted criminal and produced third party mitm injection software for browsers to steal private data and manipulate traffic.

They also already own another VPN company (CyberGhost), which explicitly can share your data with its parent company (Kape).

Sigh - finding a decent secure, fast, VPN is such a pain in the ass.

Re:

[luvirini]

Yes, most VPNs seem to be "fly by night" operations with sketchy backgrounds.

I have used F-Secure Freedome VPN and have been fairly happy with it. the big benefit there is that the company in question is a known entity without too much negative baggage in the background.

Re:

[Sarusa]

Thanks! I'll put that one on my check it out list.

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

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[luvirini]

Well, no one has put any credible arguments for F-secure not being indepenedent in their 30+ year history, but of course that is not a proof of anything, but when compared to most VPN providers.. that is a Huge difference.

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[sconeu]

I've been happy with NordVPN

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[luvirini]

The problem with NordVPN is that they are a company registetered few years back in Panama just for the VPN service (though I guess they are branching out now) and they have had several security incidents.

Whereas F-Secure has been a data security company since middle of 1990s, without any major security incidents, thus my higher trust in them.

Re:

[Rockoon]

seems like you are constantly choosing to join the next big sheep farm

Re:God damn it - Kape are sleazebags

[Sarusa]

I am consistently picking firms which are among the best in their category, which means they get lots of users, which means then they are the biggest targets for vulture capital. Put that way it seems sadly inevitable.

costs..err

[Vomitgod]

"Kape will pay $354 million in cash when the deal closes and the equivalent of $237 million in shares, ... Another $345 million in cash will be paid in two installments"

So... are they paying $354 million twice, plus $237 million?

Re:costs..err

[CaptQuark]

Wow! That adds up to over $900 million!! Just like the summary said.

Time to move?

[John Da' Baddest]

Yep, it's time for *customer sentiment* to weigh in on mergers like this, and perhaps++ affect the valuation.

WIth that thought in mind -- how about using the (relatively) new *Mozilla VPN* as an alternative, now that they're shaking out the bugs?

Privacy, Security, and Corporatism

[Stoutlimb]

Privacy, security, and large publicly traded corporations: Which of these doesn't fit with the other two?

When quarterly earnings are the only morality, privacy and security are for sale to the highest bidder, usually the state, and the centralization of a large corporation makes it so easy.

paying $300 / sub?

[krakman]

In article it claims they are going to double the VPN subs to 6 mill. so one can surmise that Kape Technologies are buying 3 Million customers. The 'most popular plan' is $100/year. So Kape are paying 3 years of revenue per client.. The only way that this makes sense is to make money from the browsing habits of people using the VPN... :(

Keep no logs....

[junkname]

Its unfortunate. I chose ExpressVPN after researching which VPN's released details during US court cases. You would be surprised how many VPN's out there that "do not store logs" actually do store logs, and those logs are shared during court. ExpressVPN was one of the few (only?) that had been in court, and the answer to the court was "we cannot provide those logs as we do not keep logs". With these new owners I can no longer trust this VPN service based on the new owner's history of selling user

Okay

[DontBeAMoran]

Can't wait to see how many YouTubers will stop sponsoring/being sponsored by ExpressVPN?

Linus from LTT, for example.