CentralNic gobbles of up large domain name registrar in $7.5 million deal.
Publicly traded CentralNic (LSE: CNIC) has purchased Bahamian domain name registrar Internet.bs (IBS).
The move gives CentralNic, currently positioned as a registry, a strong entry in the retail registrar market.
CentralNic is traditionally known for offering third level domain names, but it is the technical registry services provider powering dozens of new top level domain name applicants. Owning a large registrar gives its registry customers guaranteed market distribution.
IBS was founded by Marco Rinaudo in 2003 after he sold his hosting business. Gregg McNair later came on board as Chairman and helped position the company for the acquisition.
All IBS staff will continue with the company post-acquisition, Rinaudo said.
“I am very excited to see the Company that I founded and nurtured for more than 10 years enter this new phase of development,” said Rinaudo. “The great working relationship that I have forged with [CentralNic CEO] Ben Crawford and the CentralNic team provides me with the assurance that my IBS customers will be well supported in the future and will appreciate the proposed broadening of services to be introduced by the combined team. I will be working alongside Ben to make sure that happens in the best interest of our established and new customers.”
IBS is probably in the top 20 registrars in terms of domains under management. It is in the top 50 for .com domain registrations and has customers in 199 countries.
CentralNic will pay up to $7.5 million for the registrar, which had profits after tax of $0.73 million last year. The company will pay $5.2M up front, $2.7M in cash and $2.5M in equity that will be locked up for 12 months. The equity represents 3.42% of the company. CentralNic will pay up to $2.3M cash in the future depending on performance.
Pictured (left to right): IBS founder Marco Rinuado, IBS Chairman Gregg McNair, CentralNic CEO Ben Crawford.
[This story was updated to included the deal terms, which were made public in a regulatory filing.]
IBS is a well designed registrar that unfortunately
permanently ruined its reputation and customer trust
a year or so ago by caving in to the American
non-goverment (Pharma funded) pressure group ‘LegitScript’,
proceeding to confiscate client domains on their behalf.
Worse, they handed over to ‘LegitScript’ the right to
determine what became of the stolen domains.
IBS is now branded as a dangerous registrar that will
not have the guts to stand up to American private
pressure groups in the future.
Are they thinking of not even release the news on their homepage?!?
Some two years ago IBS gave fair warning and notice to all that it was not accepting registration or renewal of pharma related names.Those that failed to move them in the time frame were suspended in accordance with terms of use.
The same conditions apply today so if you have pharma names please do not use IBS. If that makes us dangerous in your mind Lda, so be it.
But thank you for the compliments about the registrar…..
Its hard to please all the people all the time…..
ggg
Thanks MZ….Press Release will be posted soon…
Congratulations to Marco and Gregg, and also to CentralNic.It is wonderful to see hard work pay off and to have that hard work appreciated by CentralNic.
Would it be really profitable for centralnic to buy IBS rather than investing in the new gTLDs and creating a new domain for everyone.
thiseverchanginginternet.blogspot.in
I’m proud of both. Internet.bs has been doing good business and growing. And CentralNic has also done very well for themselves. I like seeing two decent sized companies in this industry grow into something bigger. So a big old congrats comes from me!
Like attracts like. Avoid all concerned here and you’ll do well.
Congrats!
i was going to give internet.bs a try but am not a fan of centralnic and their so called ‘domains’..
I would give them a try before you judge
I have moved all my domains (XX,XXX) there over that last 2 years and I have really enjoyed their platform + their prices.
Congrats to both parties
I have 60 domains with IBS and they have been great. I also use there DNS which works superb. Do I stick with them now or move on
bye bye InternetBS. Moving under UK jurisdiction is no-go. Transeferring my domains somewhere else.
Hi Andrew:
Your a knowledgable fellow, perhaps you could explain in detail how the remarkably befitting “.BS” ccNSO ccTLD for the Bahamas became “property” of CentralNic?
This conflicts with what Jones Day explain on behalf of … “ICANN Tells U.S. Court That ccTLDs Are Not “Property” | Files Motion to Quash in U.S. Legal Action Aimed at Seizing Top-Level Domains” Dated yesterday 30 Jul 2014.
Cheers, Graham.
.bs is not property of centralnic. centralnic bought a registrar that has a second level domain on .bs.