Year in Review: MMX purchases .XXX
Adult top level domain firm was one of many acquisitions in the domain business during 2018.
MMX, also know as Minds + Machines, is a fresh top level domain name firm with a portfolio of strings such as .beer, .miami and .VIP. It’s publicly traded on the London AIM market (MMX), so it faces the daily pressure of being a public firm in a business that is still seeking its footing.
It underwent a strategic review over the past year to see if it ought to sell itself of bulk up. It chose the later.
In May, MMX disclosed that it was acquiring ICM Registry for $10.0 million in cash and 225 million shares, which were valued at $31.0 million at the time of the notice.
ICM registry isn’t your run-of-the-mill top level domain registry. Its domains are adult-themed counting .xxx, .sex, .adult and .porn.
While the domains are controversial, the move will shore up MMX’s earnings and add stability to its income statement. This gives the firm breathing room.
ICM started its life with a hard-fought battle to get .XXX. The domain was a sponsored top level domain introduced in 2011. The timing was good since it didn’t face competition from fresh TLDs.
There were three other notable acquisitions during the year.
CentralNic, another domain firm traded on the London AIM (CNIC), bought KeyDrive for $55 million.
Private equity group Abry Partners bought fresh TLD firm Donuts in a heated bidding war.
And Neustar bought out Verisign’s (NASDAQ: VRSN) security business that includes things like DDoS protection. The deal will be for somewhere between $50 million and $120 million depending on client migrations.
