IGN owner J2 Global snaps up major VPN brands

Online digital firm J2 Global has acquired VPN and privacy IP assets from infrastructure provider Stackpath. 

The deal was confirmed by an editor’s note on news site PC Mag (published by J2-owned Ziff Davis) within VPN-related content as a disclaimer to allay fears of potential conflict of interest.

The note states that IPVanish and StrongVPN are owned by J2 Global, which also owns some of the most popular tech brands worldwide thanks to an aggressive acquisition strategy.

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J2Global, now a major VPN player

IPVanish is a well-known award-winning VPN service that now sits alongside StrongVPN and a slew of other smaller brands such as Overplay.net, Unblock-us.com and Encrypt.me (formerly known as Cloak).

The acquisition also brings a lesser known brand WLVPN.com which is a white label VPN service for other VPN providers such as VPNhub, the VPN service of Pornhub, and Namecheap VPN.

With a market capitalisation approaching $4.3 billion, a number of cloud services (Campaigner, keepitsafe,eFax,Vipre) and an online portfolio of specialist websites (Askmen, IGN, PCMag, Speedtest) that reaches hundreds of millions every month, J2 Global is well placed to reap significant financial benefits from the current digital transformation journey undertaken by thousands of SMBs worldwide.

The purchase of VPN and privacy related assets only reasserts its growing ambitions to become a major global SaaS (software-as-a-service) player for consumers and small and medium businesses.

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