The domain name industry is maturing, and consolidating, and one of the biggest consolidations recently is the merger of 2 of the biggest new gTLD registries – Donuts and Rightside, both based in Seattle.
The merger, which is in effect a takeover of Rightside by Donuts, will see them become responsible for 237 new gTLDs with 2.9 million domain names under management and 10.71% of the more than 27 million domain names that have been registered across the 1,225 new gTLDs to have been delegated by ICANN. The combined entity will have more gTLDs than any other operator, with Donuts already currently the largest, and they will be the fourth largest by registrations.
The biggest of their new gTLDs will be .life from Donuts, which currently has almost 117,000 registrations, and .live from Rightside which has almost 103,000 registrations. They are the only 2 of their new gTLDs with more than 100,000 registrations.
The deal is expected to close in the third quarter of 2017 and will see Rightside become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Donuts, a privately-held company.
