Domain Name Industry Consolidation Continues: 2014 in Review
2014 had its share of blockbuster acquisitions in the domain name space.
This is the first in a five part series covering the top stories in the domain name industry in 2014. You can also listen to the companion podcast covering these five themes of 2014.
The consolidation of domain name firms continued in 2014 and it probably won’t end there.
Here are some of the transactions that were disclosed or completed during the year:
- Neustar bought .co for over $100M
- Endurance completed its buyout of part of Directi for over $100M
- Endurance bought BuyDomains for $44.9M
- Web.com purchased SnapNames for $7.4M
- Centralnic purchased Internet.bs for up to $7.5 million.
- Rook Media bought DomainSponsor and its domain portfolio
- Igloo purchased Aftermarket.com
- Escrow.com bought Agreed
There are many reasons for consolidation in any industry, and these tend to be the case in the domain name industry as well.
Consolidation can happen when a particular type of business is week. The stronger players buy the hobbled ones. That’s the case in the parking business right now.
It also happens when a business is growing quickly. Firms acquire the missing links they think they need in order to drive future growth. In the case of fresh TLD firms, that might mean acquiring a registrar, i.e. CentralNic and IBS.
You also have private equity-backed firms looking to exit their investments at the end of funds, as we saw with BuyDomains.
Acquisitions are also triggered by competitive threats, such as when Facebook purchased Instagram. You might also look at Escrow.com and Agreed that way.
I don’t see any of these consolidation triggers changing in 2015, which means we’ll probably see a lot more M&A activity.
