Facebook looking at buying Opera? I sure hope not!

[Shelded]

Originally Posted by NJSS

Drew Only dead fish go with the flow.

I have opened a new account with RunBox, to try it out, and POBox is successfully forwarding my email to the new account.

I have backed up my FM email using Mailstore Home, and have copied my addressbook to a CSV file which I will upload to RunBox later today.

I now have to replicate my FM folder structure & aliases in RunBox - a big task.

All in all it will take many hours to migrate away from FM, but in the absence of any denial from Opera that is what I must do.

NJSS

Don't neglect your Notepad. I copied every item from my Notepad into the Templates folder because (1) it's not a bad substitute and (2) Templates are treated as IMAP mail and are backed up to my local client (Notepad isn't).

But there is so much more I will miss at Fastmail. On-the-fly-From addressing is the greatest loss, followed by the solid spam protection, Fastcheck, "Delete and Next/Previous", integrated File/website storage and Family accounts...

[Lnguyen]

Originally Posted by David

I notice that 'facebookmail.com' is owned by Facebook, Inc; perhaps they are planning to rename Fastmail, if the purchase goes ahead.....

facebookmail has been there for a long while. When they opened up getting facebook.com/username, that also came along w/ the option of getting a facebook email address. So they've had it since then or longer.

But given they never fully got into the email business as predicted, this could be an entry for them. I'll certainly be disappointed. I have my main stuff w/ Google, but have always used fastmail as a trusted backup/professional account. I don't enjoy looking for a potential replacement.

[Shelded]

Usually the big fish spits out what it can't make use of.

If Fastmail doesn't fit the needs of Fakebook they'll sell it, unless the value in a competitor's hands is a strategic problem. So in my dream, we would end up with all the "new interface" discussion being ported over to FB-Opera, and the current interface being sold as a standalone.

But I have also seen the big company (Intuit) buy my preferred product (Parsons Tax Edge) and file it away permanently as a defense against others using it. They could simply shut down FM. In that case, perhaps when the non-compete agreement expires, you would see the Rob & Bron come out with FM#2.

[ChinaLamb]

Originally Posted by Shelded

In that case, perhaps when the non-compete agreement expires, you would see the Rob & Bron come out with FM#2.

in that case, Fastmail is dead... Long live fastmail!!!

But,

Not sure Rob would be willing to go through that again... His previous investment didn't make him a rich. He might be ready to do something new, instead of going through the whole process again for something that probably wont have a large return on investment....

[Shelded]

Engineers don't generally get rich. They work hard and like to make things perfect. Getting paid for it is usually a good thing. However, buying the company back from FB would take capital. Convincing Big Money to underwrite an email company these days seems hard, especially when they are now in consolidation phase.

[denverharless]

I have to say , after 11 years with Fastmail, this is the only thing that would cause me to leave. I always feared that Fastmail would just close up shop one day. I never imagined this!

[Shelded]

I'm not sure I would leave, but it would impact the way I use the service and the trust I give it. I think it takes a long time to work policy and process into a new acquisistion, so that's why I think there is no need to panic the day we are informed of it.

But I agree, there is no good way for FB to deny any ill intent. They have conditioned me to understand everything they say as doublespeak or lying, so i won't believe any assurances we are given. There is not an option but to protect against them as a foe. (FoeBook?)

[ChinaLamb]

I can only imagine Rob or Bron thinking of their puppy being bought up by Facebook. Awesome on one hand, yet very difficult on the other.

I could imagine they have strong emotions.....

[ReuvenNY]

Originally Posted by David

There is an ongoing thread about that Bamb0 - here.

The 2 threads were merged into this one.

[drew]

Rumor is rumor, we will only know for sure
when they announce it to be a signed deal.

So how long can that take? Weeks or months
or years?

[Adon]

Will it really happen?
Facebook is much worse than Opera. What can we do to stop this and to save Fastmail?

[Shelded]

Facebook has history of buying within the weekend. This should be pocket change for FB. Maybe they don't need to talk long.

[SethM]

Originally Posted by Terry

For us F/m will be so hard to replace as I don't know many email providers who allow custom sieve script.

Mine does Sieve.

If Facebook (or Zuckerberg) wants something it will simply happen one day, likely without any warning, as seen by the Instagram purchase.

[beq]

Came back to the forum to look for this discussion...

I read from one of the articles that an unnamed source within Opera said that the company is actively looking for buyers, which I find interesting?

[nfnaaron]

Originally Posted by SpamZero

I see the writing on the wall. At this point, POBox.com appears to be the only alternative, but an overpriced one. Suggestions?

pair.com is one possibility. I used them years ago with no complaints. I used procmail for filtering and had access to spamassassin.