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Donuts Inc., the largest New gTLD registry, today publicly announced its interest in acquiring Rightside Group, Ltd.’s entire registry of new generic top-level domains (New gTLDs) and related assets for $70 million in an all-cash deal.
Rightside owns a portfolio of over 30 New gTLDs such as .news, .live, .ninja and .social.
Donuts believes that this potential transaction presents a strong strategic opportunity to bolster Donuts’ gTLD portfolio and is compelling for Rightside and its investors. Donuts previously expressed its interest to Rightside relating to a potential acquisition for these assets but Rightside has repeatedly disregarded the offer.
This move is in keeping with Donuts’ stated strategy of “expanding its selection of not-com domain extensions, such as .movie, .LTD, .agency, .email, .school, .group, and many more, each providing a more descriptive and creative means for big brands, entrepreneurs, and dreamers alike to brand their businesses, products and services.”
Donuts already leads all New gTLD registries, having secured 196 domain extensions, and is aiming to market these assets by driving industry consolidation.
Donuts claims that the acquisition of Rightside’s registry business will be a win for all parties:
- Separating Rightside’s registry and registrar businesses is the best approach to unlocking value in both businesses, providing Rightside with substantial capital for investor liquidity and the optionality to invest in and grow its core registrar businesses.
- The proposed acquisition complements Donuts’ current portfolio and expands the range of domains and related services that Donuts can offer, further enhancing what is already the greatest portfolio of domain extensions.
- Donuts is the optimal acquirer for Rightside’s registry business given Donuts’ leadership in the marketplace, the parties’ long-standing business relationship, our shared technology platform, and regulatory considerations, all of which ensure the highest certainty of deal closure.
Public statements of interest rarely go forth so this purchase might never happen. As Donuts stated Rightside has repeatedly disregarded previously offers.
Rightside is also the owner of 2 ICANN accredited registrars, eNom and name.com, and Namejet, a domain name auction platform. Donuts is not offering to acquire these assets which probably makes it harder for Rightside to accept this deal.
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Taryn, don’t sell !!!
Haha. I don’t think he will.
Sell, move on and go to beach… Donuts is the best registry for investors and end users due to their pricing schedule…Other than the “Non-Com” marketing campaign, Donuts is best to handle the adoption process with the public….
Rightside’s portfolio of over 30 New gTLDs, especially .news, .live, .ninja and .social; are potentially a $500 million assets in as short as the next 3 to 5 years.
Donuts sees the high potential these Rightside’s domains presents to the market, which is why it’s making aggressive proposals to buy them out of their future — now. They shouldn’t even consider the offers at all. We are still in baby stage of the New gTLD program.
While I like many of Donuts domains and majority of their pricing strategy, I don’t like the idea of them attempting to acquire and manage all new TLDs for what they’ve termed “industry consolidation” which only benefits them as a ‘private company’. Would like to have stake in Donuts stock as a ‘publicly-traded company’.
I have interest in both Rightside domains and stock.
Rightside® Issues Statement to Respond to Donuts Proposal:
KIRKLAND, Wash., June 24, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Rightside Group, Ltd. (Nasdaq:NAME), a leading provider of domain name services that advance the way businesses and consumers define and present themselves online, confirms receipt of an unsolicited, non-binding proposal from Donuts Inc. to acquire Rightside’s entire registry of generic top-level domains and related assets for $70 million in an all-cash deal.
Rightside appreciates Donuts’ interest in these assets and also shares their enthusiasm for the Registry business. The Company’s Board of Directors and management team remain committed to maximizing long-term shareholder value and as such they will evaluate any proposal to determine whether it is in the best interests of the Company and its shareholders.