Domain business acquisitions: 2025 in Review
Namecheap among domain firm acquisitions/fundings in 2025.
The domain name business is a favorite among private equity firms since it’s a recurring-revenue business with predictable renewal rates.
So it’s no surprise that private equity firms made more acquisitions in the domain industry this year.
The big private equity transaction in 2025 was domain registrar Namecheap, which CVC Capital purchased at a $1.5 billion valuation. Namecheap grossed regarding $400 million in 2024 and manages over 11 million .com domains.
Namecheap founder Richard Kirkendall remains the largest single shareholder.
In another private equity-led transaction, Newfold Digital disclosed it was selling Markmonitor to Com Laude.
Newfold is backed by Clearlake Capital Group and Siris Capital Group, which recently invested another $100 million in the firm.
Com Laude is backed by PX3 Partners.
This marks the fifth time Markmonitor has been sold in the past 15 years. As a corporate registrar, it has higher margins and predictable renewal revenue.
Listen to this podcast with Com Laude CEO Ben Crawford to learn more regarding the firm’s plans.
Elsewhere, fresh investors joined the cap table at Identity Digital.
There are also a couple of planned divestitures in the works due to the end of AdSense for Domains.
IONOS disclosed it wants to sell Sedo. The notice was timed to allow it to move Sedo’s financials into a “discontinued operations” bucket.
Team Internet Group also wants to sell its businesses, partner, or do anything else to right the ship following Google pulled the plug on AdSense for Domains.
In other words, 2026 might be another year of acquisitions in the domain business.
