AgileBits Denies Reported 'Acquisition Talks' Between Apple and 1Password [Updated]

Apple plans to deploy 1Password internally to all of its corporate and retail employees around the world over the next few months, according to BGR's editor-in-chief Jonathan Geller, who cites an unnamed source.


The report claims Apple plans to offer a free license to the standalone version of 1Password to each of its employees and their families:

According to our source, after many months of planning, Apple plans to deploy 1Password internally to all 100,000 employees. This includes not just employees in Cupertino, but extends all the way to retail, too. Furthermore, the company is said to have carved out a deal that includes family plans, giving up to 5 family members of each employee a free license for 1Password. […]

Apple is also using the stand-alone version of 1Password — at first the company considered using the version that includes AgileBits syncing service that routes through cloud providers like Amazon AWS, but Apple quickly decided that wasn't acceptable. The standalone version of the software lets users sync through iCloud, something Apple is undoubtedly more comfortable with.

The report claims 100 Apple employees will start using 1Password through this initiative starting this week, with all corporate and retail employees at the company expected to be activated within the next one to two months.

The report also mentioned that "acquisition talks were underway," although "unlikely," and AgileBits swiftly denied that claim.

Rumours of my acquisition are completely false. My humans and I are happily independent and plan to remain so.

— 1Password (@1Password) July 10, 2018

Apple employees have already received 1Password for free for several years, so it's unclear what this "deployment" refers to exactly.