FastMail staff purchase the business from Opera
 

http://blog.fastmail.fm/2013/09/25/e...ss-from-opera/

In 2010, FastMail was bought by Opera Software. The developers and staff of FastMail have now bought back the company. This means that FastMail is once again an independent company, dedicated to building the best possible email experience for our users. We have big plans for the future, and we will continue to roll out new features and enhancements over the coming months.

There are no configuration changes or any other changes you need to make. All existing accounts will continue to run as they do now with the same billing cycle, pricing, features, reliability, security, etc.

In case you have any questions, we’ve tried to address the main issues below.

Why has Opera sold you? Are you in trouble?

Not at all. Opera has undergone an internal change of strategic direction and an email service no longer fits within their long term vision. With Opera’s investment in development and infrastructure over the last 3 years, FastMail has continued to increase its rate of growth and profitability. We came to the mutual conclusion that FastMail’s future would be better served as a separate company.

How will this affect future development work?

FastMail is keeping all existing FastMail related staff. We believe we have all the resources and talent needed to keep developing and growing FastMail now and going forward into the future.

What sort of things do you have planned?

A hugely improved mobile interface, CardDAV support to allow synchronisation of contacts between devices, a calendaring service including CalDAV support for synchronisation of events between devices, improved backend and searching performance. All these things are currently in active development and slated for release within the next year.

This all sounds great. Is there any way I can help?

The best way to help us is continue to use FastMail. It’s the support we get from our users that allows us to keep running and developing the service.

Tell your friends that there’s a real alternative to the big corporations. One that doesn’t show ads, respects your privacy, and is fully committed to keeping the service going forward.

Tweet about us. Post about us on your blog. Make you and your boss happy by switching your work email to FastMail :)

Thanks for using FastMail. We’ve put a lot of thought and effort into building the fastest, easiest and most powerful way to access your email. We look forward to providing you with the best service we can.

The FastMail Team

Awesome!

Now the question is... What happens to MyOpera?

Halleluiah...

Who is "the staff" that now owns Fastmail? Is Jeremy in? Who else?

Cool.
I think you're likely to be more nimble in responding to development drivers.

How about celebrating with some extra email GB for all :D

Phew!

So now how about assuring us daily that you are not under a court order by the NSA to compromise the security of Fastmail. That way, when (if?) you you are under a court order, you can stop posting that statement of assurance :-)

This, coming from a user out of the USA....

In any case....Congrats!

this is FANTASTIC news! as much as i liked fastmail before, the future looks even better now. best of luck rob, my wife and i will keep renewing, we really love the service (and i've been a customer since 2006)

Sounds like great news!
 

This sounds great, but brings to mind two questions -

1) What happens to operamail.com addresses?

2) With privacy issues related to the USA, what are the chances of being able to choose where our accounts are? I have gotten other accounts in Norway and Switzerland as a result of this, though I have never intended to give up FastMail. I just feel better having accounts that won't be compromised by American government.

Thank goodness for that. I can't wait for the return of sanity.

Let's have no more of the pretty bells and whistles!

Congratulations. I'm impressed with this busines decision and hope that you do well! I would like to see more of your resources devoted to customer service/support. I was so glad several years ago when you finally put a ticket system in place for support requests. It seems to me that you have been trying to provide customer service on a shoe string. Consider having a tiered pricing structure charging more for those that want really excellent, responsive support.

Great news! Looking forward to being a customer of years to come!

Congratulations, good news.

As ReuvenNY asked would you please identify who are the investors...

Will the servers remain in New York City and Iceland?

Will the offices in Oslo remain; it would be nice to think that FM will continue to have a presence in Europe as well as Australia.

Good luck guys.

NJSS

+1 - yes, definitely.

Just logged in to myopera account, now showing 3000 MB storage - must have upped since last week for me. :)

Another reason to find out what will be happening with the myopera accounts.

Quick answers to some questions:

My Opera Mail (as distinct from the broader My Opera service) is operated by FastMail on Opera's behalf. Any questions regarding it need to be directed to the appropriate channels at Opera.

I suspect you're actually asking if we're quietly owned by some larger company. We're not. The company really is owned by FastMail employees (or whatever the relationship is now, its all legal bits that I don't fully understand).

Phrased in more friendly terms, the company is owned by people that I see in the Melbourne office every day. I'm not sure if the actual list of names is public information so I'm not going to tell you, but its probably not that hard to figure out if you're paying attention. And its really not that important anyway.

No change. operamail.com is just another FastMail domain, and we have no plans to change that.

That's not currently a choice we offer.

FastMail has always been operated from Opera's Melbourne office (which is now FastMail HQ). We've taken advantage of being part of the larger Opera company to be able to use Opera's Oslo offices from time to time (including Bron working there for a couple of years). I'm sure Opera people will be happy to see us if we're ever in Oslo, but we have no official presence outside of Australia.

No change at this time.

Congratulations! I will surely continue to use and recommend FM.