NordVPN and Surfshark have finalized a merger agreement between the two VPN providers, the companies announced. Although the specifics were not released. Merge deal follows months of negotiations between the two companies that began in middle of 2021.
SurfShark and NordVPN had been rivals in a super competitive market for VPNs before the merge happened. Companies now merging to solidify offerings in different market segments and diversify geographic reach, according to the press release. More consumers have turned to VPNs in recent years to combat increasingly invasive digital tracking from search engines, ISPs, and advertisers, and to bypass restrictions and censorship.
The merger announcement follows news that Surfshark is being developed with the help of Tesonet, the same Lithuanian business incubator that helped NordVPN in its early days. While the Tesonet-NordVPN relationship is well known, the connection between Tesonet and Surfshark was not previously disclosed.
In response to the report, Surfshark head of communications said:
Surfshark was not developed with NordVPN as it is a completely different company. Even though we operate from the same country, NordVPN is our competitor.
Dominykas Dimavičius
News of the merger changes that statement, although the companies will continue to operate independently and rely on separate infrastructure and product roadmap.
When asked about how the merger affects each company’s data and privacy policies, Dimavičius told that Surfshark is legally bound not to share any information between entities that would conflict with our Terms of Service or Privacy Policy, therefore we have no plans to do so without notifying our customers beforehand.
Surfshark CEO and founder Vytautas Kaziukonis said consolidation in the market was a sign of the industry’s maturity, but acknowledged there were challenges ahead.
The merging of the strengths of Nord Security and Surfshark will provide the foundation for scaling the different dimensions of digital security needed to meet the evolving needs of our customers.
Vytautas Kaziukonis
Meanwhile, co-founder of Tesonet and Nord Security, Tom Okman, hopes the merger will help build the company as an internet security powerhouse.
The increasing complexity of cybersecurity and digital privacy is a growing challenge worldwide. We believe that this industry needs radical simplification and ease of access, for both consumers and businesses.
Tom Okman
For consumers, however, the ongoing consolidation means fewer companies ultimately have access to and control over your data — no-logs policy though — not to mention decreased motivation for competitive pricing. Surfshark has a good reputation for providing an experience comparable to Nord at a lower cost. It will be interesting to see how the pricing policy and data look in the months to come, once both brands hit the same balance sheet.