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VPN firm says it didn't know customers had lifetime subscriptions, cancels them
- phyzix5761 1y agoWhen you buy a company you buy all of its contractual obligations. You don't get to choose to not honor some of them without legal repercussions.
- flotzam 1y agoThey're saying they didn't buy the company - just some assets they liked, among them an intangible one: the brand...
- robertlagrant 1y agoYes, this is it. What is a company? Can you buy all the fun stuff and leave the liabilities?
- flotzam 1y agoFor unencumbered assets I don't see why not, but extending this logic to the brand seems fraudulent: It's unlike other assets because the (original) company crafted it to represent the whole service in the mind of the customer.
- robertlagrant 1y agoYes, I agree. But I can see how it's nebulous if you peer closely enough that you can't see the wood for the trees.
- anon373839 1y agoI’m curious to know what the announcements to existing customers said when they were transferred to the new company. I doubt it read: “the company you signed up with is bankrupt, but we cherry-picked its assets - want to go with us?”
- razakel 1y agoThe company that bought it is owned by the same guy. He knows it's bullshit.
- dragonwriter 1y agoThat’s true, which is often a reason that people don't buy failing companies at all, instead buying selected assets (including things like the trademarks and brands) and letting the actual original company go out of business. This can happen in bankruptcy, particularly, but that's not the only way it happens.
- tledakis 1y agoyes, what happened to due diligence? sounds like a BS excuse to cancel the subs.
- IAmBroom 1y agoThey did due diligence. They're lying.
- cookiengineer 1y ago> The message noted that VPNSecure was acquired in 2023, “including the technology, domain, and customer database—but not the liabilities.” Next time you see a cop on the street, you should say that you didn't purchase the liabilities when you bought drugs around the corner. How is this not prosecuted immediately?
- throwaway290 1y agoAnd any promise like "we won't sell your data and where you browse" is probably also a liability. Something to think about...
- sschueller 1y agoBayer is trying to do the same thing after purchasing Monsanto. Same at Dow after the acquisition of Union Carbide. Despicable
- bArray 1y agoI don't know how this can be legal at all, the liabilities are against the company and not the owners - and nothing changed about the company. When they purchased the company, it's name/trademark, the customer base, software, etc, they also purchased the liabilities. The only way I can think you can avoid purchasing the liabilities is to go into bankruptcy. If this is allowed to sit, then any small/medium tech company could promise the world to their customers, then just "sell" the company to a family member without the "liabilities" and there would be no recourse. That all said, I'm launching my new company "infinite money glitch". For 0.1 BTC for a life time subscription we'll send you 0.01 BTC back every month. Don't worry about the sale of the company planned in a few months to my cousin, trust me bro.
- graemep 1y agoIt is possible they bought the domain name, trademarks, code, database etc. from the company but NOT the company. However, if they have also had contracts with customers assigned to them I would have thought they would have to fulfil their side of the contract.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- mattio 1y agoThe company must remain profitable, otherwise it will bankrupt, right. I wonder what a better path forward was. Perhaps their T&C allow to lower through put of the LT-subscriptions and offer an upgrade to breakeven on LT-subs.
- trklausss 1y agoOr you know, honor the contracts that were already in place, and any new contracts get a temporal subscription instead of a lifelong one... Otherwise they shouldn't have bought the assets.
- TheChaplain 1y ago> Otherwise they shouldn't have bought the assets. They probably wouldn't if they had known, so I guess the seller may left some information out.
- IAmBroom 1y ago(psst: they knew.)
- IAmBroom 1y agoWhether or not the company will go bankrupt is immaterial to their contractual obligations. Otherwise, no one would ever declare bankruptcy. They'd just say, "If I pay I'll go bankrupt, so I won't pay."
- tuga2099 1y agoGet away from lifetime deals of services that have monthly spendings, like VPN providers, that pay for dedicated servers and bandwidth on a monthly basis.
- Mo3 1y agoI never got lifetime subscriptions even when it would've made financial sense. What defines a lifetime? Definitely not my lifetime... Offering them is a way to raise quick capital in my mind, it's not an economical benefit to them, it's a company in need of cash. And that possibly implies something about the expected lifetime of the lifetime subscription.
- NhanH 1y agoLifetime is always product or company lifetime
- blagie 1y agoI'll give another lens for why lifetime subscriptions often make sense. Places to consider them: * Non-profits * Clubs * Academic organizations * Educational / semi-educational companies * ... The key thing to remember is that the whole of the universe isn't transactional. And the right thing to do for "an [organization] in need of cash," if you'd like to see them continue, might be to... give them cash. It might also be the right thing if you'd like an organization to be able to bootstrap and not be under the pressure of investors. There are fine reasons to keep some organizations private and customer-funded (especially if the founder has a strong moral backbone).
- Alex_001 1y ago[dead]
- jmclnx 1y agoLifetime subscriptions cost just $40 ? That really rings the "to good to be true" bell. Why would a VPN company do that. I have seen deals like this for 5 years, but not lifetime. Anyway I wonder what the EUL said, was there tiny print that stated something like "we can cancel your subscription at any time" or maybe "after X years of use or non-use" ?
- ChrisArchitect 1y agoSome related discussion on a submission from a customer a few weeks ago: VPNSecure deactivated all lifetime subscribers https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43865593 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43865593