Speaking about the acquisition, TunnelBear co-founder Ryan Dochuk says: "McAfee's acquisition of TunnelBear is an exciting opportunity for our company. McAfee delivers added security for Microsoft Azure.If you're concerned about privacy, you might want to skip Facebook's VPN - Onavo Protect.Facebook Onavo VPN app gathers user data even when it is disabled.The acquisition provides us with the resources to develop our service, expand into new regions, and continue leadership of privacy and security practices in the VPN industry. “McAfee shares our passion to help everyone browse a more secure and private internet. “TunnelBear will continue to develop the products our customers have come to love, now with the backing and resources of a leading cybersecurity company,” added TunnelBear cofounder Ryan Dochuk.
However, with significantly more resources now at its disposal, TunnelBear should be in a good position to absorb any losses that result from the transfer of ownership. That TunnelBear has sold to a major brand such as McAfee won’t be greeted warmly by many of the product’s existing users. McAfee has said that it bought TunnelBear for its consumer-focused business, but TunnelBear has also branched out into the business realm, recently introducing a new VPN product for teams, so there is scope for McAfee to build on this foundation. Indeed, there are no shortage of VPN services out there already, with more arriving all the time - ProtonMail, for example, recently expanded beyond encrypted email to offer its first dedicated VPN service. Though VPNs have served as popular online privacy tools for years - helping internet users mask their true location and access services restricted to other regions - growing privacy concerns and political shifts such as Donald Trump’s rise to the White House have led a number of VPN and encrypted messaging services to report a surge in downloads. “This investment is strategic for McAfee’s consumer business as it further showcases our commitment to help keep our customers’ online data and browsing private and more secure at a time when the threat landscape is growing in volume, speed, and complexity.” “TunnelBear has built an engaging and profitable direct-to-consumer brand, and we’re confident this acquisition will serve both our end users and partners by embedding its best-in-class, hardened network into our Safe Connect product,” said McAfee CEO Christopher Young, in a press release. VentureBeat has also confirmed with McAfee that it plans to keep the TunnelBear brand and standalone apps alive. McAfee already offers a VPN service called Safe Connect, and it seems McAfee plans to leverage TunnelBear’s “hardened network” there. However, TunnelBear had also previously revealed that it is profitable, so was likely in position to wait until the offer was right. TunnelBear hadn’t taken on any known outside funding, so McAfee is unlikely to have broken the bank over this acquisition. This latest deal represents McAfee’s second acquisition as an independent company, after it bought cybersecurity provider Skyhigh Networks back in November. The company was acquired by Intel in 2010 for a mammoth $7.7 billion. It later became known as Intel Security Group before being spun out last year as an independent company, with Intel retaining a 49 percent share in the business. Founded in 1987, McAfee is one of the most established brands in the online security realm and is arguably best known for its desktop antivirus software.
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