Back in November many were surprised by the news that Donuts was acquiring Afilias. While mergers and acquisitions happen all the time, this deal was big news and to many observers probably a little surprising.Yesterday the deal closed. The "change of control" had been on the agenda of a recent ICANN Board meeting, but nothing of any substance came out of that. … [Read more...] about Donuts’ Afilias Deal Closes
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Donuts to Buy Afilias
There's been a lot of mergers and acquisitions in the domain name space over the last few years.However Donuts acquiring Afilias is more than just "big" news. I'd have to sit down and work it out in more , but I think with this merger Donuts becomes the single biggest registry operator in terms of TLDs.Centralnic is probably the diversity king, as they seem to have … [Read more...] about Donuts to Buy Afilias
PIR Names Jon Nevett as new CEO
PIR, the registry operator for .org, as well as .ong and .ngo, has announced who their new CEO will be. The previous CEO, Brian Cute, left the company several months ago and Jay Daley had been serving as interim CEO.Industry veteran Jonathan Nevett, who was most recently with Donuts, has been named as the new PIR CEO effective December 17th.Here's the full … [Read more...] about PIR Names Jon Nevett as new CEO
Donuts Acquires Legacy .Travel Domain Registry
Andrew and Kevin both covered the acquisition of the .travel TLD by Donuts, which was announced earlier today.What will Donuts do with it?I suspect they'll try to make it as easy to register a .travel domain name as possible, though they might like to keep some level of "certification". What that'll look like is hard to say and what they'll be able to get out of either … [Read more...] about Donuts Acquires Legacy .Travel Domain Registry
The Hunger Games Switches To .Movie
Getting an "anchor tenant" is a concept that most people can understand. Domain names aren't that different.If you can get people using your domain extension then it goes from being an "academic" exercise to being something which is potentially viable as a business.The Donuts team have managed to pull off quite a coup in getting the movie franchise The Hunger Games to … [Read more...] about The Hunger Games Switches To .Movie
New TLD Reveal Event In London
ICANN will be hosting an event in London next Wednesday with both Rod Beckstrom and Kurt Pritz in attendance.The event will include the official "reveal" of the new TLD application list.Over the past few days there have been quite a few big announcements, with Donuts scooping the "lion's share" of coverage with their announcement to apply for over 300 strings! Related … [Read more...] about New TLD Reveal Event In London