Apple could acquire the popular password manager 1Password – The Motley Fool



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Confidentiality and data security are top of mind for many consumers, thanks in part to a series of recent data privacy scandals that have made the headlines. Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) sought to make privacy a differentiator years ago, hoping that the stark contrast to the way his advertising-oriented peers approached the Privacy would help sell more iPhones. It's unclear whether the effort has worked, but he has certainly philosophically distinguished Apple from other technological giants.

On the consumer side, pbadword management is one of the most important – and daunting – tasks. In an account on an iPhone "src =" https://g.foolcdn.com/editorial/images/487499/account-login-phone_large.jpg "/>

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A Test Drive

BGR reports that Apple is preparing to deploy the popular pbadword manager 1Pbadword, made by the AgileBits developer, internally to all 123,000 of its employees over the next two months, including businesses and retail employees. As part of the internal enterprise rollout, Apple is expected to get generous terms from AgileBits to support the flow of new users, according to the report. The contract represents a major boon to AgileBits, which is a pretty small company.

Perhaps more interesting, Apple would be in talks to recover AgileBits (although 1Pbadword denied it in a tweet ). The deployment could be essentially Apple taking 1Pbadword for a test drive.

Despite iCloud Keychain, 1Pbadword is still a market leader

The news is intriguing for several reasons. For starters, he suggests that Apple realizes that iCloud Keychain is not competitive with 1Pbadword. iCloud Keychain was launched almost five years ago as Apple's cloud-based pbadword management application. This introduction posed a threat to pbadword manager developers because Apple's offer benefited from a deep integration between its devices.

AgileBits however managed to defend its leading market position alongside its peers LogMeIn for $ 110 million in 2015), partly because it has a wide range of Third-party integrations with other applications and services. As a small private company, it is unclear how many 1Pbadword users said "millions".

Apple is big on subscription services today

Another reason why a potential acquisition is interesting is that AgileBits has begun to pivot to a subscription model in 2016. 1Pbadword had already been sold as a single license (and price). On the consumer side, the company currently offers an individual package of $ 3 per month and a family plan of $ 5 per month. There are also business plans for business customers, which the company says it has over 30,000.

You may have already heard that Apple is working hard to develop its service business, mainly through different types of subscriptions offered to its customers. and base of loyal users. The acquisition of AgileBits and the provision of a cloud-based pbadword management service could perfectly fit into this mold, and it's clear that it's not a problem. there is considerable demand for such a paying offer.

Apple could acquire AgileBits only to support iCloud Keychain, which is free. Or Apple could offer both a free and paid version, with more features included with a paid subscription. There are a lot of strategic options here, and if the price is right, Apple should seal the deal.

Evan Niu, CFA owns shares of Apple. The Motley Fool owns stocks and recommends Apple. The Motley Fool has the following options: long January 2020 calls $ 150 on Apple and short-term January 2020 calls 155 on Apple. The Fool Motley has a disclosure policy.

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