Fastmail Acquired by Opera!

[alapzaj]

Originally Posted by nighthawk700

What's next?

A shiney new Palm PDA in less than a year with a huge marketing budget to promote it as deserves. As for FM, a shiney new free webmail service for Opera users, without Sieve, LDAP, IMAP, notes, webspace, domain hosting, etc. Oh, and happy people on full screen ads just using it and laughing under the perfectly blue sky on a green meadow. Maybe a Volvo in the background.

[reed]

Originally Posted by ReuvenNY

But if you cancel you account, say next week, all your data and personal info are gone, just a week later then if you canceled it right away. I do not understand what's all the fuss around it.

My reading was, if you canceled today, your information would not go to any entity owned by Opera. If you canceled next week, it may have been transmitted on the effective date to Opera.

If Fastmail runs as aways, then I supposed your information would be gone in 7 days.

Things changed and probably will continue to do so.

I found it personally to be no fuss, as FM did not have any serious personal information of mine. If at a later date, they try and 'fill in' their database and do so with another 1 day opt-in or quit, I'd probably be seriously miffed. This probably would be some sort of 'we need to legally comply' issue.

Now, if FM had a credit card of mine, I'd have been more concerned with the fact that Opera now would have it. I trusted FM. My relationship with Opera is too new to know what sort of company they are. They will have bright spots and sharp edges. The question is, which ones will FM users see over the next year or so.

As a general comment to all reading this thread, at this point, if you've decided to leave FM, there may be worthwhile input as for Opera to read, as to why you left. If you are staying with FM/Opera, now is the time, and here may be the place, to explain clearly, rationally and kindly what you expect of their company in the future.

[Shelded]

Originally Posted by keysnpics

Indeed: I ended up in the HP umbrella when they bought EDS. So far it's good. As for HP buying Palm, it was a great move if you like Palm products (I'm neutral in general on such gadgets). Better than Palm dying off or their IP being sold off piecemeal. I know one Palm users who's very relieved.

But it's moving off topic, so I'll stop.

I worked for an EDS customer when it was purchased by HP and it seems on topic to mention here that the result was very bad for the customer. So there's some cautious enthusiasm here. HP seemed to be looking for ways to overlap their staff with EDS and to cut costs by reducing headcount. EDS had already done that when they took over tasks from the customer, so all we got was millions of dollars of mayhem.

[beq]

Originally Posted by nighthawk700

I feel sorry for any Palm users out there. Wednesday Palm gets bought by HP, today FastMail is bought by Opera. What's next?

Apple buys Adobe and integrates Flash into their mobile products. The very next day, Steve Jobs leaves Apple and becomes Google's new co-CEO. Android and Chrome become his new babies...

[dragon1]

Like many of you I was surprised by the announcement of the merger when I logged into my account. I prefer to take the "wait-and-see" approach. But I see the point about not being given more time to consider whether or not to "abandon ship."

While this, I believe, is the first time I've had an email provider merge with another company, I've had experiences with other providers who dropped free services in favor of paid subscription only or businesses-only services (visto.com and junglemate, for example.) They gave us time to migrate saved emails elsewhere.

I'm sticking with FM/Opera for the time being. But, since it's good practice to do so, I'll backup my emails to another service and/or my local drive while everything plays out.

[Shelded]

Visto was the one I was recalling had clogged servers while everyone tried to get out before deadline. Not a good solution.

http://www.emaildiscussions.com/show...hlight=myvisto

[Adam Lachlan]

Well this is certainly unexpected. Bit of a shame really, Fastmail had a "personal" feel to it, probably down to Rob and Jeremy being prolific contributors to EMD. This will be somewhat lost now. I can only hope it isn't the same all over again as the Oddpost/Yahoo! fiasco. I guess in the current climate Rob and Jeremy (like Ethan and Iain of Oddpost) are wise to take the money and run. I wish them all the best for the future.

[beq]

Just curious, when will Rob and the rest of the FastMail staff be allowed to talk in this forum (other than Jeremy, who's sadly no longer officially affiliated)? A couple of Opera employees are already posting here, even if not in a 100% authoritative capacity...

Perhaps the NDA expires tomorrow?

[Sherry]

To Jeremy, Rob and all the (previous) FastMail employees. I want to thank you all for the "great" service, help, and participation on EMD throughout the many years I've been with you (late 2001 while still in beta). I hope you all find the transition good for you and can enjoy whatever changes are necessary in your lives. Best wishes and good luck in your future endeavors.

Sherry

[keysnpics]

I must says I've read this thread through the day (or whatever counts as a day in your part of the planet), and I have to say I'm a little surprised by the level of hubris over this. Gee, folks. It's just your email! You would think someone had sold your family car loan to the mafia!

Sure I like/love (and eventually started paying for) Fastmail. Yes, I'd probably not enjoy it being too monkeyed with (I don't even like the FM beta, but they're nice enough to still support me for a long time still). But I'm not immediately distrustful of another company. It's not like I really have much of anything to hide in my email (maybe some do ).

Anyway, I'm a long way from ditching FM. Maybe if I used its advanced features more I'd be less happy. For now, as long as they keep a decent IMAP I'm fine. ~ Mr. T

[drewdawg]

So with the future unknown... I am not jumping ship yet, but are there any other FREE web based services that respect your privacy and delete messages when you delete them.

[Shelded]

Why not use a POP service provided by your ISP? They usually also have a web interface.

[drewdawg]

I do for home and family.... but use a different web service like FM for all my fantasy sports, i would rather to keep it separate

[RusVebgo]

Originally Posted by keysnpics

I have to say I'm a little surprised by the level of hubris over this. Gee, folks. It's just your email! You would think someone had sold your family car loan to the mafia!

For some of us "just your email" happens to be a very important part of out business. I host/hosted my domain with fastmail. It takes at least 72 hours to change the name servers for a domain after you have organised a new hosting service.

Typically you are looking at a week to change hosting service and domain servers, yet Fastmail only gave me six hours to make other arrangements

[ChinaLamb]

Originally Posted by mrparson

Personally, I find this a bit disheartening since I am new to Fastmail (about 1 week now) and bought 3 years of service for me and my spouse. So I now have 2 accounts that if I cancel I lose all the money I just paid.

I think if you cancel you should get back your money (prorated of course), but I find it disingenuous when they clearly knew before they made their most recent offer to get people to sign up.

I would cancel and walk away but I am also out $80.00 if I do after 1 week of use (my spouse has yet to use it).

Not very happy with this treatment.

Like others FM seems to be about the bottom line even when they knew this was coming to take people's money.

I would go back to Netaddress in a heartbeat now, but it stinks paying this company $80.00 for service I would never get use of personally.

I am not sure if I can dispute this legally with my CC company and not pay for the recent charges and cancel my service.

I would caution people against being reactionary. I would fully expect that you will get full value for what you have paid for.