Adult top level domain company was one of many acquisitions in the domain business during 2018.
MMX, also know as Minds + Machines, is a new top level domain name company with a portfolio of strings such as .beer, .miami and .VIP. It’s publicly traded on the London AIM market (MMX), so it faces the daily pressure of being a public company in a business that is still seeking its footing.
It underwent a strategic review over the past year to see if it should sell itself of bulk up. It chose the later.
In May, MMX announced that it was acquiring ICM Registry for $10.0 million in cash and 225 million shares, which were valued at $31.0 million at the time of the announcement.
ICM registry isn’t your run-of-the-mill top level domain registry. Its domains are adult-themed including .xxx, .sex, .adult and .porn.
While the domains are controversial, the move will shore up MMX’s earnings and add stability to its income statement. This gives the company breathing room.
ICM started its life with a hard-fought battle to get .XXX. The domain was a sponsored top level domain introduced in 2011. The timing was good because it didn’t face competition from new TLDs.
There were three other notable acquisitions during the year.
CentralNic, another domain company traded on the London AIM (CNIC), bought KeyDrive for $55 million.
Private equity group Abry Partners bought new TLD company Donuts in a heated bidding war.
And Neustar bought out Verisign’s (NASDAQ: VRSN) security business that includes things like DDoS protection. The deal will be for somewhere between $50 million and $120 million depending on customer migrations.
How do you know there was a “heated bidding war” for Donuts? I looked back in your other article, for reference, but couldn’t find anything. 🙂