Domain registrar Network Solutions has been acquired by a private equity firm.
Private equity firm General Atlantic announced that it is acquiring domain registrar Network Solutions from Najafi Companies (formerly Pivotal Private Equity). Since this is a private equity deal you should not expect major changes to the operations of Network Solutions (as compared to an acquisition by a competitor). According to TechCrunch, rumors are swirling that the deal is worth $800M.
Network Solutions was the first domain registrar and had a lock on the market for many years. Until new registrars like Dotster entered the market upon deregulation, Network Solutions was the only option for registering domain names. The standard registration fee was $70 for two years. This price made it difficult to register many domains for speculative purposes. Network Solutions was part of VeriSign until it was spun off in 2003.
Although Network Solutions has now been dwarfed by discount registrars such as leader GoDaddy, it does have one nice market: expiring domains. Because good generic domains were mostly registered during the mid-90s they were all registered at Network Solutions. Thus, most good generic domains that expire are from Network Solutions. With its agreement with SnapNames, Network Solutions is able to auction these domains, sometimes for over $100,000.
Steven says
The deal has been posted on Netsol.com press releases.
Editor says
Yes, the press release doesn’t say anything about dollar amount…as they likely don’t want to disclose it.
Kelly says
I hope the investment is a bad one b/c the company stinks.
Actually, the N etwork S olutions domains were $100 before they dropped to $70 on a judges order that there was an unfair $30 tax. No one, however, received refunds on that $30. I believe the judge let them keep that.
All domains were free up until Sept. 1995.
Mark Y says
N etwork S olutions stinks. I got an email that my email was to expire so I renewed. I ended up with a new email somehow, but when I called and told them all I wanted to do was renew, the customer support person said I would get a refund. Then I get an email that said they don’t give refunds on email registrations even though I have a dozen domain names with them and an existing email. Thanks for letting me vent.