Moniker Purchased

In another landmark domain name deal, Moniker has been purchased by advertising firm Kanoodle.

Just months following eNom was purchased, popular domain registrar Moniker has been purchased. Kanoodle, known for its contextual advertising services, is buying Moniker but will operate it as a separate business unit. The fresh firm will be called Seevast.

I’m a big fan of Moniker and hold most of my domains with the firm. Moniker focuses on clients with sizable portfolios and provides one-on-one client service. I hope this buyout adds value to Moniker’s existing registration clients and doesn’t result in major changes at the registrar. Moniker is great; the addition of Kanoodle can make it outstanding if done properly.

The reasons for this buyout are obvious given Moniker’s role in the industry. Kanoodle will also be able to syndicate its ads through Moniker’s parked domains, counting those parked in its TrafficClub service.

So eNom has been purchased and then it purchased BulkRegister. Moniker has been purchased. Register.com was purchased by an investment group. What’s next? The industry is ripe for more mergers and acquisitions. There are two types of acquisitions in this industry: first, consolidation in which one registrar buys another; second, value chain consolidation in which firms combine more pieces of the puzzle such as content, advertising, and domains.

With GoDaddy going public soon we might see it snap up some other registrars. Still other registrars may be forced to combine forces or meet a sad fate. I wouldn’t be surprised to see action with Network Solutions, Tucows, Register.com, or Dotster, with most of my money on the latter three.