Actually, the part of the article that made me prick my ears up was this paragraph:

In February, longtime CEO Michael Crandell moved to an advisory role, according to LinkedIn, with no announcement from the company. His replacement, Michael Sullivan, former CEO of both Acquia and Insightsoftware, touts his experience with “all facets of mergers and acquisitions” on his own LinkedIn page, including experience working with leading private equity firms.

In combination with downplaying the free plan and removing any hint of now politically unfashionable DEI-like language, what this screams to me is: Bitwarden is being prepped for a sale.

▲

nacs 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

This feels like deja-vu with Lastpass.

LogMeIn buys Lastpass, multiple massive breaches occur[, people move to Bitwarden].

▲

troyvit 3 hours ago | parent [-]

Did Lastpass have a project like Vaultwarden behind it at the time? I'm hoping against hope that that will keep us with an open vault.

▲

jmux 2 hours ago | parent [-]

vaultwarden is great, but password managers are security critical software that need consistent maintenance and constant updates.

if bitwarden is acquired and the new owner decides an open source version of their product is not a business necessity, without someone actively supporting the salaries of engineers it’s unlikely to continue to be secure for much longer.

	▲	joecool1029 8 minutes ago \| parent \| next [-]
		> vaultwarden is great, but password managers are security critical software that need consistent maintenance and constant updates. You’re acting like this isn’t the case already with vaultwarden? (and it’s easier to host as well, making for easier updates) https://github.com/dani-garcia/vaultwarden/releases
	▲	hgoel an hour ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		But since it's already open source and popular among tech savvy people, they have to weigh any attempts at increasing profits against the risk of losing customers to a fork.

▲

fbd_0100 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Well, it was nice while it lasted.

▲

YFriedman 39 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

When did they remove DEI language?

And how is that relevant, either way?

▲

rcxdude 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

This is what made me and others nervous when they announced a huge investment into the company a few years ago. It was already a good and self-sustaining product, and taking on that investment was just going to create an expectation of returns later down the line, something that was more likely to result in enshittification.

▲

persedes 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

urgh of course it has to be private equity. Really liked the product and did not mind paying for it...but not ready for the PE enshittification.

▲

beAbU 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

womp womp