Zoom Buys Keybase and Hires former National Security Official
Posted on 05/08/2020
Zoom Video Communications, Inc. (Zoom) acquired New York-based Keybase an encrypted messaging platform. This is Zoom’s first acquisition in its 9-year history. Zoom has faced calls from both the government and business community on its security flaws. Keybase is a 25-person startup that developed end-to-end encryption to video calls. In early April 2020, Zoom CEO Eric Yuan hired former Facebook security chief Alex Stamos as a consultant. in 2015, Keybase raised a US$ 10.8 million financing round that was led by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz.
On May 3, 2020, Zoom hired Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster to fill the newly created vacancy, effective May 6, 2020. From February 2017 to April 2018, McMaster was the 26th Assistant to the U.S. President for National Security Affairs. General McMaster holds a B.S. from the United States Military Academy at West Point and a M.A. and Ph.D. in History from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.