United Internet bulks up by 1.1 million domain names.
United Internet AG, parent company of 1&1 and Sedo, has purchased domain registrar united-domains AG from LYCOS Europe for about EUR 34M. The final transaction price will depend on united-domains AG’s financial results for 2008.
united-domains AG manages about 1.1 million domain names for 180,000 customers, and is Germany’s second largest domain registrar. The company was founded in 2000 and is still run by founders Florian Huber (CEO), Alexander Helm and Markus Eggensperger, who will own around 15% of the company in the future.
The transaction is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2009.
United Internet has a market cap of EUR 1.22 billion. Domainers probably recognize it as the owner of 1&1, a web hosting company that offers inexpensive domain registration services. 1&1 has about 4.6 million domain names under management according to RegistrarStats. But fewer people know that United Internet also owns domain brokerage Sedo, which is part of Adlink.
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M. Menius says
Sounds like more consolidation. Along these lines, I predict more newsworthy domain portfolio buyouts for 2009.
Some rather large corporations are sizing up and preparing for serious future competition. Again, the internet is the future for all business in one form or another. So now’s the time for players to consolidate and position themselves for maximum leverage moving forward.
Andrew says
M. Menius – in this case I think Lycos Europe closed down. But it’s still consolidation.
http://resourcesandmoney.blogspot.com says
Will this mean that Lycos Europe is in the brink of bankcruptcy? Cannot support it, so they sold it?
Andrew says
@ # 3- I’m not familiar with the European Lycos, but I believe it is shutting down. Can you confirm?
Michael Z says
Did they pay too much?
They could have bought Tucows which has 6.5 million domains for USD 25M (based on the current market cap). Plus Tucows has a big domain portfolio.
Andrew says
@ Michael – Tucows also has debt…you can’t just take the market cap. And as a public company, they couldn’t just buy Tucows for the market cap. They’d have to offer a hefty premium and then go through voting, et al.
But it does beg the question if Tucows is a takeover target…