ExpressVPN has been acquired by former ad injection software maker

VPN provider ExpressVPN has been acquired by Kape, an IT security company that was formed in 2018 from the Crossrider company. As an affiliate, that company focused on offering ad injecting software. PIA also falls under Kape.

Kape Technologies has acquired ExpressVPN for $936 million. Kape reports that after the acquisition it will have 6 million paying customers and 720 employees. It is not known how many of these customers come from ExpressVPN. It is Kape’s fourth acquisition of a VPN provider in more than four years.

In 2017, Kape took over CyberGhost, although Kape was still operating under the name Crossrider at the time. The acquisition of ZenMate followed in 2018, followed by the acquisition of Private Internet Access in 2019. The Mac-oriented Intego Antivirus is also part of the company.

Kape Technologies is not without controversy. When the company was still called Crossrider, it focused, among other things, on offering a platform that allows developers to display advertisements via browser extensions and programs. These included extensions that inject advertisements into users’ browsers.

According to research by Google and several universities, Crossrider was the largest affiliate with a market share of 42 to 44 percent and it worked with SuperFish, among others, to covertly serve ads to users of applications. Lenovo was discredited when it delivered SuperFish via adware with malware properties on its laptops. After the name change, Kape promised not to focus on advertising technology anymore, according to Globe. According to the ExpressVPN co-founder, Kape has shown that it shares its commitment to user privacy.

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