Com Laude buys MarkMonitor, marking its fifth owner in less than 15 years.
Corporate domain name registrar Markmonitor has been sold once again, marking at least its fifth owner in less than 15 years.
This time, it was domain and hosting rollup Newfold Digital selling to Com Laude.
Newfold said the sale is part of a strategy to simplify its portfolio of domain assets. Recently, it has consolidated its major domain registration brands, including Web.com and Register.com, into Network Solutions.
For Com Laude, it’s the second acquisition announcement in as many weeks. Last week, the company announced it was acquiring domain consulting company FairWinds.
Com Laude is backed by private equity firm PX3 Partners. Com Laude hired former Team Internet Group CEO Ben Crawford last year. Crawford grew Team Internet by acquisition, so it’s not surprising he’s following the same playbook at his new employer.
As for Markmonitor, its customers must be feeling whiplash. Thomas Reuters acquired the business in 2012 and then sold it to Clarivate Analytics in 2016. Clarivate sold it to Newfold Digital in 2022 for $300 million. Com Laude said the enterprise valuation of its acquisition was $450 million. Com Laude clarified that the $450 million enterprise valuation was for its business post-acquisition, not just the Markmonitor business.
Markmonitor has about 700,000 .com domains under management, in addition to other extensions. It competes with CSC, Safenames, and GoDaddy Corporate Domains, among others.
All these latest acquisitions… namecheap etc etc
The Big Question is
Will this be good for us ,domainers??
I don’t think so ..look at GD….they screw things up with poor services… products..
Markmonitor doesn’t work with domainers
Markmonitor has never been as good a service as when they had Matt Serlin working there. Ever since they got rid of him in one of the previous re-shufflings, it’s all been downhill.
Oh Taylor, I know you appreciated how he managed domains for you
Well, at least now she gets to, uh, Com Loudly.
Lol, nice trolling, wonder who decided to post as TS on this post.
PS. on the 1% chance that it’s true, I’m sorry :p
You don’t think Taylor reads domain name wire?
Ahh…thanks Taylor 🙂 For the record, I left on my own accord but appreciate the sentiment regardless!