Centralnic Acquires Parking Crew

Centralnic has acquired yet another domain company. This time round it’s German domain parking company Team Internet, which is probably better known under the name of its domain parking brand “Parking Crew“.

The London based company has been snapping up companies on both sides of the Atlantic over the last couple of years, though this is the first company focussed on monetisation that they’ve added to their portfolio.

So what do we know about the deal?

According to statements from Centralnic the overall value of the deal is US$48 million, made up of US$45 million cash and a further US$3 million in group shares. Of that total US$48 million US$3 million is deferred.

Existing clients of Team Internet won’t be impacted by the sounds of things and the company’s main players and staff have committed to staying on post-acquisition.

We couldn’t be happier with the joining of Team Internet into the CentralNic Group,” stated Markus Ostertag, Team Internet CEO. “This is an excellent fit for us and we appreciate the expertise and leadership CentralNic brings to all aspects of the domain industry. Having already worked with some of the brands in the group, we know we are set for many great shared successes. Our partners can continue to trust in Team Internet’s ongoing commitment in delivering forward-thinking and profitable domain monetization solutions. Our business continues to grow and our joining into the CentralNic team is a strong next step toward a prosperous future.”

Centralnic’s group of companies covers back-end domain registry services, wholesales and retail domain sales, as well as data centre services. The new addition to the portfolio will bring a high performing monetisation suite of solutions in house.

Ben Crawford, CentralNic CEO, said: “At CentralNic, we have been observing Team Internet’s progress over the years as they have grown to dominate the domain parking space and always-leading innovation in the traffic monetization industry. We are thrilled to now be making them part of our group. This acquisition is the next step in our mission of supplying every customer type in the domain industry with world class services. The future is looking very bright for Team Internet as we will support the development of their industry-leading and rapidly growing platforms, including the traffic marketplace TONIC. and ParkingCrew, with its patented monetization for HTTPS traffic which domain investors are rushing to sign up to.”

It is a very logical fit. Most registrars park domain names which adds revenue, but they lose a cut of that revenue to whichever domain parking company they choose. Now the Centralnic companies will be able to keep that revenue within the family of companies.

And what of Team Internet’s numbers?

According to Centralnic’s statements Team Internet had audited revenues of US$75.6m and Adjusted EBITDA of US$14.2m in the year ended 31 December 2018, and US$66.7m of revenue (unaudited) and US$10.6m of Adjusted EBITDA (unaudited) in the 12 months to 30 June 2019.

So who will Centralnic go after next?

By Michele Neylon

Michele is founder and managing director of Irish domain registrar and hosting company Blacknight. Michele has been deeply involved in domain and internet policy discussions for more than a decade. He also co-hosts the Technology.ie podcast.

Exit mobile version