McAfee acquires Canada-based VPN provider TunnelBear, is likely to integrate it into its Safe Connect VPN service
McAfee announced that it has acquired Canada-based virtual private network (VPN) company TunnelBear. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Context & Ripple Effects
The TunnelBear deal extends an acquisition streak that began months earlier with McAfee's purchase of cloud security startup Skyhigh Networks — part of what TechCrunch called ongoing consolidation in the security industry. Unlike Skyhigh, which was enterprise infrastructure, TunnelBear is a consumer brand with a friendly reputation, and McAfee's stated plan is to fold it into its own Safe Connect VPN service.
In hindsight, the deal reads as an early marker of the consumer-first pivot that defined McAfee's next three years: the company later sold its entire enterprise business to Symphony Technology Group for $4B in the all-cash enterprise divestiture, then agreed to be taken private by Advent International in a $14B deal including about $4B in debt. Buying a consumer VPN brand in 2018 was a bet on exactly the consumer portfolio those later transactions were built around.
First-order effects
- Safe Connect gains an established consumer VPN brand and technology overnight, letting McAfee compete on usability rather than building a VPN from scratch.
- TunnelBear's user base and Canadian operations now sit inside McAfee, whose undisclosed-price purchase keeps the standalone VPN's independent roadmap subordinate to Safe Connect integration.
Second-order effects
- Standalone VPN providers face a shrinking path to independence as large security vendors buy rather than build consumer privacy features, tightening the consolidation wave the Skyhigh deal already signaled.
- Consumer security rivals must respond by bundling VPN capability into their own suites, since McAfee can now offer identity-plus-privacy in one subscription.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, security vendors split into consumer-suite specialists and enterprise specialists — a split McAfee itself completed by shedding its enterprise arm ahead of going private.
- Privacy features like VPNs shift from products people buy separately to bundled checkboxes inside antivirus subscriptions, compressing pricing power for independent VPN makers.
The trend: Security vendors are consolidating point-solution acquisitions into consumer suites, a build-out that set up McAfee's eventual enterprise exit and private-equity take-private.