In an effort to keep you updated with the latest happenings in the Domain Industry, we’d like to introduce you to our monthly Domain Industry Roundup series. In our first edition, we’ll cover all the buzz and the need-to-know information from around the Industry that took place in June 2017. Read on to learn more:
HIGHLIGHTS:
- Mergers & Acquisitions
- Important ICANN announcements & updates
- Cyber attacks taking over the internet
- New TLD updates
MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS
- Donuts acquires Rightside: Donuts Inc., a leading domain name registry for new gTLDs and Rightside registry announced their merger on June 14th, 2017. The two companies have a long history of conducting business together and have finally taken the plunge and combined their forces.
The merger agreement is valued at $213 Million approximately for the entire business. This deal will add 40 new gTLDs to Donuts’ existing portfolio of 200 gTLDs – the largest in the industry. Furthermore, it will also include the transfer of the popular retail domain registrar – Name.com.
It will be interesting to see how this partnership will affect the current market situation.
- Vodien advances growth with Dreamscape Networks: Australia’s leading domains & hosting provider, Dreamscape Networks was looking at expanding their business in the South-East Asia region. What better way to kickstart this thought process than by acquiring Singapore’s largest hosting company – Vodien Group!
Vodien Internet Solutions is a web hosting provider in Asia that provides reliable and high-tech performance hosting solutions to over 35,000 companies and 2,10,000 users.This merger looked like the ideal deal to expand their business in Singapore without having to establish their own hub there.
This merger would help both the companies offer their existing customers add-on high-value products and services. The agreement is valued at 29.67 million AUD to wholly acquire Voiden Group.
- Rackspace seals the deal with TriCore: Rackspace closed its acquisition with Tricore in June. Rackspace called this their largest acquisition as compared to the 8 closures they’ve had before. This merger will give Rackspace the ability to not only manage a company’s cloud services but also provide expertise in enterprise app management, especially EPR management.
CYBER ATTACKS TAKE OVER THE INTERNET
A large number of companies around the globe have been crippled by the recent cyber attacks. Here’s a look at the major cyber attacks that made news in June.
- Petya Ransomware: A large scale ransomware attack is rapidly spreading around the globe affecting telecoms, banks and other businesses. The attack caused computers to stop functioning, leaving a ransom note demanding $300 in bitcoins. The attack infected 2,000 systems and servers approximately and was spread across the UK, US, France, Germany, Russia. Ukraine has emerged as the epicenter of the damage during this cyber attack, affecting its Central bank, airport and the Chernobyl power plant.
- Cyber attack on UK Parliament: The UK parliament has been the target of a cyber attack resulting in gaining access to few email accounts of Member of Parliaments and their staffers, leaving them unable to access their emails.
- WannaCry Attack: WannaCry or WannaCrypt is a ransomware attack that holds a computer’s files hostage in exchange for bitcoins. This cyber attack took place in May 2017 and affected a number of countries around the globe, demanding $300 in bitcoins to regain access to the files. U.K. security services, as well as the U.S. National Security Agency, have suspected North Korea to be responsible for this cyber attack.
ICANN ANNOUNCEMENTS
- Kobe and Montréal Declared as Meeting Sites for ICANN 2019: ICANN’s 64th Public Meeting will be held in Kobe, Japan for the Asia-Pacific region. The meeting will be hosted by the Japan Network Information Center from March 9 – 14, 2019. Montréal, Canada has been picked to host ICANN’s 66th Public Meeting for the North American region.
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- ICANN’s Report on Africa DNS Market Study: ICANN released its final report on African Domain Name System Market Study earlier this month.This study was conducted to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the DNS sector in Africa and to understand if there was a need for an observatory to monitor the growth and development of the DNS market. The research lead to the following conclusions:
- The total annual value of the African Domain Name market is $52 million approximately.
- There is potential growth in the African domain name market in the future.
- Global Indigenous Ambassador Program: ICANN announced the Global Indigenous Ambassador Program on June 14, 2017. This program states that two indigenous ambassadors will be selected from underrepresented communities. This initiative will help ICANN to be more efficient with the next generation of the global internet community. This program is targeted towards served and unserved tribal or native communities and must meet the ICANN Fellowship Program Criteria.
- DENIC eG approved as New gTLD Data Escrow Agent: Denic – the managing organization of Germany’s ccTLD, has been approved to provide data escrow services to new gTLD registry operators.
NEW TLD UPDATES
- .INFO Registry Price Hike: Effective July 1, 2017, the .INFO Registry increased the prices of .INFO domain registrations, renewals and transfers by $0.89.
- .AFRICA Domain Name Registrations: The highly demanded new gTLD – .AFRICA, closed its Sunrise period on June 2, 2017. According to the reports, over 930 domain names have been registered during this phase. This TLD is currently in the General Availability phase and is open to everyone to apply for.
These are some of the important events that made news in the month of June. To stay updated with the key happenings from the industry, watch this space for our next bulletin.
