The acquisition of Name.com comes as Demand Media prepares its platform for the release of the new top level domains this year
Digital media company Demand Media announced on Monday that it has acquired Denver-based domain name registrar Name.com for an undisclosed amount.
The acquisition comes as Demand Media prepares its platform for the release of new Top Level Domains this year, including the 26 that it applied for, and in another 100 new gTLD applications with its controversial partner Donuts, Inc.
Demand Media is already in a solid position to support new TLDs through its subsidiary eNom. eNom launched a new TLD portal during the cPanel Conference in October. The portal allows its resellers to integrate a watchlist, sunrise and landrush module on their website through a javascript widget.
Between Name.com and eNom, Demand Media has around 15 million registered domain names. While eNom focuses on its reseller channel, Name.com will serve the consumer and small business end, a segment that will become “even more valuable as over one thousand new domain extensions are expected to become available for registration in the years ahead,” Richard Rosenblatt, chairman and CEO, Demand Media said in statement.
The culture at Name.com is fun and laidback, which will serve Demand Media well when it tries to compete for new TLD consumer business. While Name.com has been hit by outages of its own, in July it was impacted by an Internet outage at a SoftLayer data center, when competitor Go Daddy goes down, it is usually the first to offer discounts for unhappy Go Daddy customers.
“We’ve got new owners but rest assured we’re still the same team you know and love. A large part of what made Name.com so appealing to Demand was our free-spirited, off beat company culture (they totally had a crush on us but that’s awkward now since we’re family and all… moving on). They have emphasized that they want to keep our unique culture intact, which we’re very pleased to hear because that means we can keep having fun,” Name.com writes in a blog post.
The Name.com team will remain in Denver, and will report to Taryn Naidu, executive vice president, Registrar Services.
“Our strategy is to provide an end-to-end solution for all things domains — whether you are looking to consume or distribute names and services,” Naidu said in a statement. “Name.com brings innovation, creativity and a deep commitment to their customers – factors which we believe are essential in the environment of new gTLDs.”
Talk back: How do you think the acquisition of Name.com will help Demand Media when new gTLDs are released this year? Do you think Name.com will complement Demand Media’s subsidiary eNom? Let us know in a comment.
About Nicole Henderson
Nicole Henderson is the Editor in Chief of the Web Host Industry Review where she covers daily news and features online, as well as in print. She has a bachelor of journalism from Ryerson University in Toronto. You can find her on Twitter @NicoleHenderson.
