Proton CEO official response:
Hi everyone, this is Andy here (Proton founder/CEO). Just got alerted about the news, and wanted to respond to some of the comments along the lines of "how do we know Proton won't sell out?"
The truth is, you can't know for sure, but Proton is structured in a way that provides a strong assurance, and we'll be sharing more about this some time in the next month. But for all intents and purposes, it really isn't possible for Proton to be acquired.
Proton is not a product of silicon valley, but a crowdfunded project that was conceived at CERN. Proton doesn't have VC investors (so no pressure to sell), and Proton is profitable (so no pressure from finances). To this day, it continues to be managed and run by scientists, and nobody goes into science to get rich.
Finally, Proton has scale with 100M+ accounts and 400+ employees. Frankly, if the goal was to sell and make a bunch of money, it could have already been done long ago. Instead, we push onwards.
Our work is brutally difficult, with daunting challenges every step of the way, and only the true believers stay on the path for this long. If money was the goal, we wouldn't have done any of the things listed on this page (https://proton.me/about/impact) much less given away over $2.7 million to aligned organizations
This year Proton happens to turn 10. We'll probably never be the cheapest, the most flashy, or maybe not even the fastest. But we will strive to be the most resilient. For as long as there's this community of users supporting our work, we're not going anywhere. In fact, the ideas and values we share together, may even win the future of the web. For that reason, we're eternally grateful for your support as we fight the hard fights.
source: reddit
@Rookwood @testeronious
Tuta seems to be driven by idealists and privacy activists as well. AFAIK, they also don't have venture capital and their user base of paying users is what keeps them alive. Which is also why it's still a small company.
I don't recall how Tuta got their initial funding to get startet. I don't think they were crowdfunded in the same way Proton did.
But the idealsism goals of both Tuta and Proton is what generally makes it less likely they will sell out.
AFAIR, Skiff was VC funded. The idealism of the founders are easily ignored when the VC backing wants to cash in on their investments. And that's what happened here, in some way or another.