They had no viable business plan to begin with. Google and Yahoo mail are among the top 10 trophy targets on the Internet. I have no idea how you'd convince me some startup had put more resources into securing mail than Google did.

Volvo may not be the most popular brand of car, but it may still be the safest, if that's their primary focus.

Did they have a viable business to begin with? At least personally, I don't spend too much time worrying that hackers are going to raid my gmail.

I've dealt with several companies, mostly banks, that use web based "secure e-mail" systems (mostly they're just file storage systems). They won't e-mail important documents to you since most people's e-mail clients use plain text and/or people use weak passwords, etc...

In fact I recently received a four inch thick stack of documentation, APIs, etc... via FedEx from a bank because they didn't trust my e-mail and I wasn't on "the list" for their "secure e-mail" site (pay per account thing).

So yes, reasonable or not, secure or not, there is a business supplying "secure" communications for businesses.

They may not have had a viable business, but enough gloss and marketing could cover that up.

This? this is straight up public humiliation.

Ask Microsoft.