A big revenue generator is quickly declining. Google’s campaign in recent years to push websites to use an SSL certificate has been a boon to everyone in the SSL marketplace, including certificate issuers and hosting companies. But what Google giveth, Google can taketh away. And this is wreaking havoc on the business of selling SSL […]
Controversial free-speech registrar Epik has said it will take 8chan’s domain name business, but will not provide content delivery services for the site. In a post entitled “Epik draws line on Acceptable Use”, CEO Rob Monster wrote: Upon careful consideration of the recent operating history of 8Chan, and in the wake of tragic news in […]
CentralNic has made yet another registrar acquisition, picking up New Zealand-based Ideegeo Group for the equivalent of $3.4 million. The company said it will pay NZD 5.2 million, of which 10% is being deferred until May 2021. Ideegeo runs the registrar iwantmyname.com. It’s not ICANN-accredited in its own right, rather it’s a reseller of Hexonet, […]
The CEO of AlpNames lost his $2.1 million deposit on a $10.6 million Manhattan apartment just days before his company went belly-up earlier this year, DI can reveal. A New York District Court judge in February found in favor of property developer Highline Associates, which had sued Iain Roache for his deposit after he failed […]
India registrar Net 4 India has been given a bit of breathing space by ICANN, following its suspension last month. ICANN suspended the registrar’s accreditation a month ago, effective June 21, after discovering the company had been in insolvency proceedings for some time. But on June 20 ICANN updated its suspension notice to give Net4 […]
Donuts, the registry with the largest stable of new gTLDs, has added its 242nd string to its bow. The company seems to have acquired .contact from, nominally at least, smaller portfolio rival Top Level Spectrum. The ICANN contract for the gTLD was transferred to one of Donuts’ subsidiaries a couple weeks ago. According to TLS […]
GoDaddy shutdown over 15,000 subdomains where surprisingly the legitimate owners of the domain did not even know they were hacked. The websites had fake endorsements from celebrities such as Jennifer Lopez, Gwen Stefani, and Shark Tank to name just a few. Gadgets360 on NDTV.com reported Spammers continue to find new ways to lure unsuspecting users […]
Consider these eight safeguards to keep thieves away from your domain names. If you own domain names–particularly good names–you are at risk of having your valuable assets stolen from you. Thieves will try to compromise your domain registrar account (sometimes by first compromising your email account) and transfer the domains to another registrar. Sometimes they […]
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 […]
