LogMeIn to spinoff LastPass as new company

US-based remote work tools vendor LogMeIn is spinning off its LastPass solution into a standalone company.

LastPass is a password management solution for both consumer and business customers.

The new company plans to increase its share of the password management, single sign-on and multi-factor authentication markets through organic growth driven by improvements in its customer experience, the company said.

“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,” LogMeIn president and CEO Bill Wagner said.

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

Enterprise makes up the largest portion of LastPass’ customer base which, the company said, shows the rising importance of identity verification to organisations.

“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 Francisco Partners partner Andrew Kowal. “We assessed our portfolio with a laser focus on unlocking the full potential of our business and identifying how we could best serve customers and accelerate growth across very different markets.”

A statement quoted an IDC security researcher on the growing market for identity management solutions.

“Organisations of all sizes across all verticals have applications that lack a SAML or 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,” IDC cybersecurity products program manager Jay Bretzmann said. “LastPass clearly sees the opportunity in today’s market, and with today’s announcement, is poised to deliver increased strategic value to customers.”