GoDaddy has announced that it will acquire Neustar’s domain registry business for an undisclosed amount.
The deal will make GoDaddy both a domain name whole seller and a retailer, giving it access to 12 million additional domains.
However the acquisition also brings an extensive portfolio of top-level domains, including the likes of .biz, .co, .nyc, and .us among others.
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Acquisition deal
The deal also includes Neustar’s Managed Registry Services business, which currently provides end-to-end registry management for over 130 brand TLDs and 70 generic TLDs.
The new business entity will be known as GoDaddy Registry and will be led by Nicolai Bezsonoff, currently Senior Vice President and General Manager of Neustar’s Registry business.
To avoid any conflict of interest, GoDaddy has announced that it "will strictly adhere to a governance model that maintains independence between the GoDaddy registry and registrar businesses.”
While this not the first time that a company will own both registries and registrars, GoDaddy COO Andrew Low Ah Kee stressed that both the businesses will be kept entirely independent with a separation of data.
He added that neither side will be allowed to show any preference for the other business and functions inside legal and audit areas will be set up to ensure compliance.
Bezsonoff added that the company is not looking to increase prices, and may actually lower costs for some top-level domains - a decision in stark contrast to Neustar’s decision of raise susbcriptions last year.
GoDaddy will absorb the registry team at Neustar and has announced that there will be no layoffs due to the acquisition. The team will, as of now, remain in Neustar’s office or will be relocated to a GoDaddy facility after the coronavirus-led lockdown is removed.
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