Donuts now owns Afilias.
Top level domain name company Donuts has completed its acquisition of Afilias, the company announced today.
Donuts’ CEO Akram Atallah said, “We expect no changes in the short term, and ample notice on any changes that are decided. Security, stability and reliability continue to be our top priorities.”
Those changes could be a rationalization of two different registry platforms. Donuts will likely tread carefully in order to not upset the registrar channel.
It will also be interesting to see which employees stay with the combined company. There is significant overlap between the two companies, which was surely part of the equation when Donuts determined how much it was willing to pay for Afilias.
ICANN staff apprised its board of the transaction, likely because of the involvement of ICANN’s former CEO, but did not take any action to prevent the transaction.
It will be interesting to see what the combined value eventually brings to the table and how it all impacts the end user’s journey, significantly in a positive way.