Domain and hosting services provider
CentralNic Group PLC (CentralNic) is to acquire ideegeo Group Ltd (ideegeo). CentralNic, which has global headquarters in London, United Kingdom, was established in 1995. The company is a provider of “software platforms providing web presence services”. It also offers email and SSL certificate options. Its domain services include offering TLDs, ccTLDs, and gTLDs. It has customers in more than 250 countries and currently manages approximately 2 million domain names. It also manages around 5 million domain names through its network of resellers. Financial aspects of its acquisition of ideegeo were not released.
ideegeo is a New Zealand-based provider that offers domain registration services through the ‘iwantmyname.com’ brand. The company is an “innovator in the application of User Centered Design to the retailing of domain names” and currently manages 180,000 domains. It is a leading customer of ‘Hexonet’, another company recently acquired by CentralNic.
CentralNic will offer ideegeo-developed design solutions through its retail websites. The company will absorb ideegeo’s technology and staff and Timo Reitnauer, one of ideegeo’s founders, will be appointed to the position of Customer Engagement Product Planner and Manager at CentralNic. It estimates cross selling opportunities will drive an additional 80,000 customers to its books. The acquisition represents CentralNic’s fifth in the last year.
“The acquisition of ideegeo adds more to CentralNic’s retail group than additional earnings, customers and synergies,” explained CentralNic’s CEO Ben Crawford. “Its leading User Interface and Customer Engagement solutions, and the team that created them, represent a further differentiator for CentralNic’s global retail business from the competition to support our organic growth.”
“We couldn’t be any happier to have joined forces with CentralNic,” added Timo Reitnauer. “Their wide range of products will allow us to grow iwantmyname even further and achieve the vision we always had for the company. CentralNic also made some very smart acquisitions lately bringing great technology and people we admire to the table. Personally, I’m looking forward to working with their retail team and make it even easier for businesses to create an online presence.”
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