Expirations outpaced new registrations at GoDaddy in December. ICANN has published the latest official data from Verisign (NASDAQ: VRSN) about the .com namespace. This registrar-by-registrar report covers December 2018. Something interesting happened in December: GoDaddy’s .com domains under management (DUMs) dropped. I’ve tracked monthly numbers for a long time and don’t recall this happening in […]
Private equity firm acquires domain name registrar with 2.5 million domains. Private equity firm Montefiore Investment has acquired domain name registrar Gandi. In a heartfelt blog post, Gandi CEO Stephan Ramoin explained the origins of the company and its values. One thing that’s unique about Gandi is that is has grown mostly by word-of-mouth; the […]
I am asked every week who is the best domain registrar? My answer is always it depends on your specific needs and interests. For me it’s Epik, GoDaddy, Name.com. Epik.com for the pricing, all the tools provided such as escrow, free privacy, marketplace, payment plans, etc… GoDaddy for their reach, their auction platform and that […]
Slovakian registrar WebSupport, which is run by a local politician, has been acquired in a reported eight-figure deal. The acquirer is Loopia, a Swedish registrar backed by Danish private equity firm Axcel. The deal seems to have closed around the same time as Loopia’s acquisition of .SE Direkt from Swedish registry IIS, though news only […]
Endurance International put in a poor show when it came to domains name sales in 2018. Revenue and average revenue per registrant were both down in the fourth quarter and full-year results, which were announced this morning. Endurance’s registrar business includes BigRock, Domain.com, FastDomain, PublicDomainRegistry.com and others. Combined, those four brands account for almost 10 […]
Promo offers cheap domains but they aren’t as inexpensive as they look. Network Solutions sent out a Cyber Monday special that looks tempting: Up to 5 .com, .net, .biz, .info or .org domains for only 50 cents each. The devil is in the very fine print: Domains transferred out prior to one year renewal will […]
Transfer dispute was resolved in a legal settlement. Namecheap and Tucows (NASDAQ: TCX) have entered into a settlement agreement to resolve a transfer dispute. Namecheap, a former Enom reseller, sued Tucows (which now owns Enom) because it said that Tucows was dragging its feet over transferring millions of domain names to Namecheap. Tucows said it […]
AG asks Epik to hand over communications with Gab. Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro has asked domain name registrar Epik to send it information about its interactions with Gab, the social network that came under fire after one of its users shot people at a synagogue in Pittsburgh. Gab.com was registered at GoDaddy before moving […]
GoDaddy CEO Scott Wagner ducked a question about how the company will react to future .com price increases during its third-quarter earnings call yesterday, but used the opportunity to take a gentle swipe at Verisign. Asked by an analyst whether the first 7% price increase, almost certainly coming in 2020, would have any effect on […]
Growth across the board plus a stock buyback. GoDaddy (NYSE:GDDY) released Q3 2018 earnings after the market closed today. Revenue hit $680 million, up 17% year-over-year. Bookings were up 11% to $742 million. Domain revenue was $310 million, up from $272 million in the same quarter last year. It was $305 million in Q2 of […]
