August 12, 2005 -- (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- The biggest story in this week's Web hosting industry news was a conflict over the sale of a big Web hosting partner. At the same time, there was a more successful acquisition, and a variety of new domain offerings.

On Tuesday, it was reported that domain registrar and Web hosting provider Register.com had agreed to be acquired by private equity capital firm Vector Capital. Register.com said the transaction would be worth about $200 million in cash, $7.81 per share. The company had rejected an acquisition offer from RCM Acquisition Co. in June, worth $7.10 per share.

On Wednesday, Mark Cuban said he would vote against the proposed sale. Owner of the NBA's Dallas Mavericks, Cuban owns 3.3 million shares, or 13.2 percent, of Register.com. He issued a statement asserting that the deal is not in the best interest of shareholders. He said the $200 did not come close to fairly valuing the business, and would be "disastrous to the interests of the stockholders."

In a much smoother example of acquisition, Internet exchange operator Terremark announced on Monday that it had acquired European managed hosting provider Dedigate. Terremark acquired all of Dedigate's outstanding stock for 1.6 million shares of Terremark common stock. Terremark says the acquisition is consistent with its strategy of layering managed services into its existing infrastructure and connectivity services.

Amid the news of acquisitions, a handful of Web hosting and domain registration companies reported a conflict of their own, as well as a handful of new services.

On Monday, ICM Registry, the operator appointed by ICANN to run the .xxx domain registry, released a statement regarding organizations offering misleading services related to the domain's "sunrise" or "landrush" period. ICM registry said the domain had yet to be launched, and warned that no registrars had yet been licensed to register the domain. The company advised that consumers be suspicious of such operations, and check the ICM Registry Web site or join the company's mailing list for information on the availability of the .xxx domains.

On Monday, Web hosting provider Host Color announced that it now offers .cn and .in domain registrations along with its Mega hosting plan. The .cn and .in extensions are country-code domains for China and India, respectively. The company says the domains will be available for its promotional price of $1 for a limited time.

And on Thursday, Domain registrar and Web host Go Daddy announced that it had been accredited by EURid to sell the .eu domain. The company says it will begin accepting registrations on or before August 25, and will automatically submit those registrations when EURid opens its sunrise period in October. Only public bodies, trademark holders and those with prior rights to a name are eligible to register .eu domains during the sunrise period.

The coming weeks will no doubt see developments in the release of the .eu and .xxx domains, but the most immediate development will no doubt come from the dispute over the sale of Register.com, as Cuban's opposition is likely to convince at least some other shareholders into voting against the sale.