Neustar pays $109 million for registry that runs .co domain name.
Domain name registry Neustar has acquired .CO Internet S.A.S and associated assets for $109 million, the company announced moments ago.
.CO Internet, which commercialized the .Co domain name starting in 2010, exited last year with an annual revenue run rate of $21 million.
[See more: Why Neustar paid $109 million for .CO Internet.]
The registry has over 1.6 million domain names currently registered. Registrars price .Co registrations typically 2-3 times higher than .com domain names.
.CO spends aggressively on marketing, even appearing in three Super Bowls in conjunction with domain registrar GoDaddy. In addition to getting the .Co domain name base, Neustar is getting a team that has proven itself adept at marketing. Neustar is typically known in the domain business for its technical competency rather than marketing prowess.
The .Co domain name is about to enter an interesting period where it faces additional competition from new top level domain names. At the same time, Neustar is in jeopardy of losing a lucrative telephone contract and is in search of additional revenue streams.
Neustar is already the backend registry provider for .Co and earned about $4 million in that role last year.
The acquisition does not include POP.co and Nu dot Co LLC (applicant for a handful of new TLDs).
Domo Sapiens says
Congratulations! on a well done job.
Hats off.
BT says
Wow – i can’t believe they were paying $4mm a year to maintain 1.6mm registrations. astonishing.
Andrew Allemann says
About $2.50 each. That does seem high to me, but perhaps there was more involved.
Acro says
“Registrars price .Co registrations typically 2-3 times higher than .com domain names.” – they are actually priced lower than .com at registration price, and 25% to 50% higher for renewals.
Congrats to .CO and Neustar.
Philip says
Bound to be further consolidation in the space. Im looking for when Yahoo makes a play Minds + Machines Ltd, in order to gain traction in the new gTLD space.
Marissa Mayer’s logical option to address Googles dominant position.
Rubens Kuhl says
Every time people mention a rumor about a publicly listed company (like Minds + Machines) being a takeover target I wonder whether who posted has a vested interest in what such rumor can achieve.
Philip says
Who said anything about a takeover for M+M being current? Its stated that it would a logical move as opposed to one being considered at this particular moment in time. Paranoia needs to be put into check.
Andrew Allemann says
Lots of people have a vested interest in a publicly traded company being taken over.
domenclature says
@Allemann,
DNW is doing a great job bringing relevant news, timely, and professionally. Thanks
Andrew Allemann says
Thanks
Philip says
Agree on that. I’m beginning to rely much more on DNW for news . Well done Andrew.
Alex Ivanovs says
Thank you guys, great report!
PageHowe.com says
this is Juans blog post, looks better for .co holder than originally thought (ie an exit) and turning it over to neustar.
http://www.go.co/blog/2014/03/20/its-onward-upward-for-co/#respond
Andrew Allemann says
It is better IF they continue to market the heck out of the domain. Hopefully they won’t just harvest it.
Henry says
Is this the same Neustar that let .US languish while other cctlds are thriving?
Andrew Allemann says
Yes, and .biz. Neustar looked at itself as a technical services provider and let marketing languish. Perhaps if they let the .co loose to help with other TLDs…
ChuckWagen says
Isn’t it funny that in .US is a vast, open, largely untapped namespace, yet somehow there was this pressing, indisputable need to create thousands of dot whatevers.
Volker Greimann says
One word: NEXUS
Henry says
Unless they are trying to use the marketing expertise of the .CO people, it does not bode well for .CO going forward in my opinion. They have not done much to make .US what it can be or could have been. Only time will tell.
Meyer says
I think $ 2.50 sounds cheap for a start-up gtld back office operation.
Gavin Owlsen says
That’s quite a big investment but I’m sure will give a high return of investment. .COm is better than .CO, but .CO is better than other new gLTD. New gLTD only makes domain buying and selling industry drop.
domino says
The new gTLDs are just going into GA in many cases, so way too early to say .co is better then then the more specific oriented gTLDs.
somon says
Big amount $109 million. So .co will be more pricy