The UK-based CentralNic Group is seeking to raise €15 million (US$18m) from investors “for the acquisition of near-term identified targets.” Since 2015, CentralNic has acquired at least 10 companies, mostly domain name registrars.
The British-based CentralNic has acquired the parent company of the German Key-Systems, KeyDrive, for $35.8 million it was announced today. The acquisition will see the combined group become the 11th largest registrar globally by generic top level domain volume and will be among the top 5 registry service providers by number of registry clients.
Key-Systems, which his owned by a holding company called KeyDrive based in Luxembourg, includes a number of prominent domain name registrars and related businesses include new gTLD registry KSregistry, Skyway Data Center, nic.saarland, BrandShelter, Domain Discount 24, PartnerGate and Thomsen Trampedach, among others.
âThe acquisition of KeyDrive is a milestone for the company,â said Ben Crawford, CEO of CentralNic. âOn completion, the enlarged group will have doubled in size and will have the technology platforms, expert staff, vision and drive to rival the industryâs traditional leaders.â
Alex Siffrin, the founder and CEO of KeyDrive will become Chief Operating Officer of the Company and will also be a significant shareholder.
âI am personally excited to be welcoming Alex to CentralNic,â continued Crawford. âHis experience, shared values and standing within the industry will be a tremendous benefit to the group and a great addition to the management team.â
According to an announcement from CentralNic, the acquisition represents a reverse takeover under the AIM rules for Companies and is conditional upon shareholder approval.
CentralNic has been on an acquisition spree in recent years having acquired the Australian-New Zealand registrar instra for A$33 million in 2015, the rights to operate the .sk (Slovakia) country code top level domain (ccTLD) and renewed their exclusive wholesaler contract with XYZ.com – the owner of the .xyz new gTLD till 2032, both in 2017.
In 2017, it was reported that âCentralNicâs longer-term vision is to âjoin the ranks of world leaders in its industry, which include a number of multi-billion-dollar companies.ââ
In the new gTLD business, CentralNic currently provides backend registry services for 48 new gTLDs with over 4.8 million domain names under management making it the second largest by DUM while Key-Systems, through KSregistry, has 27 new gTLDs with over 32,000 DUM, according to nTLDstats. KSregistry mostly has brand new gTLDs hence the lower number of registrations while CentralNicâs include .xyz with 2.048 million, .online (844,000) and .site (499,000) with 8 with more than 100,000 registrations.
[news release] KeyDrive S.A., an internet solutions holding company with subsidiaries providing domain registration, monetization and aftermarket services, announced today (3 March) that it has sold the SnapNames business unit to Web.com. KeyDrive acquired the two sister companies SnapNames and Moniker from Oversee.net in 2012. While SnapNames is focused on domain acquisition, brokerage and sales, Moniker is one of the largest US based registrars.
âMoniker now plans to work even more closely together with KeyDrive and its sister company Key-Systems to strengthen its position on the US registrar market and to become an even more powerful international registrar. KeyDrive will be reinvigorating the Moniker brand with new technology, products and commitment to their customer serviceâ, said Alexander Siffrin, Chairman of KeyDrive.
The disposition of SnapNames will have no negative effect on the customer experience of the Moniker clients. The same staff will be taking care of all customer needs and customers will access their accounts as before. Moniker will continue to work with SnapNames as in the past and the usual business will not be interrupted for clients.
In February Bonnie Wittenburg assumed the position as Moniker CEO. Under her leadership the synergies and cooperation that existed between Key-Systems and Moniker will be increased. A series of new service offerings is planned by Moniker in the future through this increased cooperation. Wittenburg plans to focus much attention on the development of Monikerâs customer service as Moniker expands the product offerings.
Among the unique strengths that the parent company KeyDrive and its members bring are the commitment to offer a broad range of domain name extensions including pre-registration for over 700 new top level domains, a large ccTLD offering and a variety of domain-related services such as professional registry services and IT infrastructure services accompanied by a strong costumer focus provided by domain experts.
About KeyDrive S.A.
The KeyDrive S.A. holding located in Luxembourg includes the Key-Systems Group, the NameDrive Group as well as Moniker. The subsidiaries offer different internet related services. Among the core business areas are domain registration, monetization and aftermarket services. With the takeover of Moniker in January 2012 the group has more than 6 million domains under management. To learn more, please visit www.KeyDrive.lu.
KeyDrive, a Luxembourg- and German-based company providing domain registration, monetisation and aftermarket services has acquired the Moniker and SnapNames business units of Oversee.net.
Moniker and SnapNames offer businesses and individuals an array of services for domain name registration, acquisition, brokerage and sales. Moniker introduced the live domain name auction concept. SnapNames operates the largest online auction of expired and deleting domain names, giving its customers access to valuable names.
âThe purchase of these two leaders in the domain aftermarket perfectly ï¬ts our global growth strategyâ, said Alexander Siffrin, Chairman of the KeyDrive S.A., and CEO and founder of Key-Systems. âWe now have the opportunity to extend our global outreach, target a broader customer base and cross-sell our services. Furthermore, our European clients will gain access to US buyers and sellers of domain names. Weâre delighted to welcome the Moniker and SnapNames teams to KeyDrive S.A.â
âThe sale of these assets allows us to focus more on our core monetisation and vertical markets divisions which are the fundamental building blocks of our global performance marketing network,â noted Debra Domeyer, Co-CEO of Oversee.
âAs the domain industry landscape changes, it is essential that we invest in new technologies that leverage our existing platform and unlock the potential of domain traffic. Our focus is on developing new monetisation alternatives for both publishers and advertisers. We also want to thank Craig Snyder and the Moniker and SnapNames teams for their years of dedicated service.â
With the takeover of Moniker the group has more than 6 million domains under management and more than 160 employees.