Tech Desk 
Jun 05, 2024
Popular Mac app, Bartender, has transferred ownership in a move that appears to have caused grave concern among users.
The news was uncovered by Reddit users who received warnings from MacUpdater, informing them that the company behind Bartender had been replaced. Users were alerted to remain weary of version 5.0.52, due to the lack of transparency.
Curiously enough, news of the transfer was not broken until two months after the transaction and that too was made public by the users themselves.
Bartender’s new owners responded to the Reddit thread, acknowledging ownership yet avoiding explaining their prolonged silence or the change in the certificate:
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"Hey everyone, new owners of Bartender here! Our team acquired Bartender from Ben S, the original developer, two months ago. As we prepare to roll out updates for Bartender, we needed to re-sign the app with Apple using our company's information, replacing Ben's. This led to a one-time certificate change," the new owners wrote.
"Truth be told, we should have notated it on the release notes but, since we could not update them retroactively, we included this fact on our blog & shared it with users as they emailed us. We've collaborated closely with Ben to understand his vision for Bartender. Our goal is to implement many of the improvements he had planned and address any reported bugs from the past few months to enhance Bartender's performance.”
When Reddit users prodded the company further, there was no response. The Bartender website was updated with information about a certificate change after users reported receiving new permissions, while the post acknowledges the certificate change as being "expected and valid”, no further details are provided.
The company claims to have addressed the sale on its website but that has been found to be untrue.
At present, Bartender's new owners are reserved and though their intentions aren't clear, users should remain weary that the old developers will no longer remain in action.
