LogMeIn to set up LastPass as Stand Alone Company

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One of the world’s most prominent software as a service companies, LogMeIn, Inc., has announced plans to establish one of its cloud-based solutions, LastPass, as a standalone company. The move has implications for Hungary, where LogMeIn was founded in 2003, since this is the biggest location for LastPass globally.

John Ford, VP of digital workplace technology and managing director for LogMeIn Hungary (including LastPass), describes the development as a “spinning up,” rather than spinning off. “We are excited to welcome this new member to the Hungarian tech scene, which is not only a genuine global leader in the business-critical area of securing the remote workforce but also has all its software engineering, product design and tech support located here in Hungary,” he tells the Budapest Business Journal.

The award-winning password manager already helps more than 30 million users organize and protect their online lives and supports more than 85,000 businesses of all sizes, providing identity and access management solutions.

LogMeIn says LastPass is the category leader in zero-knowledge password management. As a standalone entity, it will look forward to “strong and sustained growth” as consumers and businesses prioritize password security.

In “spinning up” LastPass, LogMeIn says it plans to increase investment in the customer experience, go-to-market functions and engineering to accelerate its organic growth in password management, Single Sign-On, and Multi-factor Authentication.

“The substantial scale of LastPass, its tremendous growth, and its market-leading position and brand makes it a perfect candidate to seize new opportunities as its own standalone company,” said Bill Wagner, president and CEO of LogMeIn.

Today, the significant majority of LastPass’ business is represented by corporate customers, illustrating the business imperative that password management has become to organizations of all sizes. The importance of securing identity verification among consumers and businesses is rising, given the rapid proliferation of passwords and the prevalence of unauthorized access by hackers.

Vast Growth

Francisco Partners, a leading global investment firm specializing in partnering with technology and technology-enabled businesses, is part of the financial support for the move.

“The success we’ve seen across the entire LogMeIn portfolio over the last 18 months proves there is a vast growth opportunity ahead for both LastPass and LogMeIn,” said Andrew Kowal, a partner at Francisco Partners as well as a LogMeIn director.

The global shift to remote working has also fueled the adoption of new accounts and apps; 50% of people in the 2021 Psychology of Passwords research reported twice the number of accounts today compared to pre-pandemic levels.

“Organizations of all sizes across all verticals have applications that lack an OpenID interface for single sign-on access, and their management is acutely aware of the financial costs and productivity burdens that come with repeated credentials resets,” comments Jay Bretzmann, a program director at IDC Security Products, a global provider of market intelligence and advisory services for the information technology, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets.

“LastPass clearly sees the opportunity in today’s market, and with this announcement, is poised to deliver increased strategic value to customers,” he adds.

Using what it calls a zero-knowledge security model, LastPass enables end users to generate  secure credentials and share them across teams, companies or families with ease. It also monitors weak credentials and potential breaches, such as personal information on the dark web, while providing insight and control to IT teams with a comprehensive admin console and policy configurations.

Wagner says the announcement “reflects our strategic priority to strengthen and invest in our flexible work enablement portfolio across unified communications and collaboration and IT management and support. We believe that LogMeIn is well-positioned to continue to deliver strong results and capitalize on the tremendous opportunity in today’s virtual environment,” he adds.

This article was first published in the Budapest Business Journal print issue of January 14, 2022.

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