Afilias To Acquire .GLOBAL From Cloud Names

Afilias announced Monday it was acquiring the .global new gTLD from Cloud Names to add to its stable. It will be Afilias’ 22nd new gTLD and add 48,650 domain names to the 172,700 domain names under management it currently has. It’s currently 63rd on the nTLDstats chart when it comes to total registration numbers.

Afilias already provides backend registry services to .global and given Cloud Names, the current operator, only has this one new gTLD under its management means it’s likely they will exit the new gTLD business as a company. .cloud was delegated in June 2014 and entered General Availability in September 2014 and has been on a gradual but continuous rise ever since. Originally there were 2 applicants for .cloud, with Donuts withdrawing its application in what appeared to be a privately negotiated deal.

Afilias also provides backend registry services for 191 new generic top level domains, the largest of which is .xin with 94,000 domain names under management and .global is second, and in total has close to over 452,000 DUM.

As Afilias has been the registry services provider for .GLOBAL since it was delegated, the change of ownership has little practical impact on registrar customers and none on registrants. Afilias in their announcement says that some paperwork will need to be updated, and Afilias will provide support for the administrative changes.

“Ailias is pleased to acquire another successful TLD” said Hal Lubsen, Chief Executive Officer of Afilias. “Rolf Larsen and his team have done a great job building .GLOBAL to the success it is today, and Afilias looks forward to continuing to work with our registrar partners to expand the franchise.  Many website owners want to give their message a global appeal, and a .GLOBAL address is, by definition, a great platform.”

“We are glad that Afilias is taking over .GLOBAL” said Rolf Larsen, Chief Executive Officer of Dot Global Domain Registry Limited. “As our technical partner from inception, Afilias has the scale, organisation and financial resources to enable .GLOBAL to reach its full potential” he continued. “We are working closely together to minimise the impact of this change on our customers.”