September 6, 2018

Domain registry Donuts to be acquired by Abry Partners

The equity firm seeks to consolidate their portfolio by adding 238 new gTLDs and millions of customers by acquiring a majority stake in the company.

Domain registry

Domain registry Donuts will be acquired by private equity firm Abry Partners in an undisclosed deal to diversify the latter’s portfolio. As per the terms of the deal, Abry will be adding more than 238 new gTLDs to their offerings in addition to 4 million domain names for accelerated growth and innovation.

According to Abry, Donuts 238 new gTLDs in their portfolio makes them the largest domain name provider by far, especially after they acquired Rightside last year for USD 213 million. They claim that Donuts has only the second largest number of domain names, just behind Domain Name Ventures, whose largest is .LOAN with 2.291 million registrations as per nTLDstats.

By acquiring Donuts, Abry claim that they will be adding a new service to their existing suite of media, communications, business and information services, only to diversify their offerings. They say that this acquisition will help them stay ahead of other private equity firms in North America and Europe.

The equity firm revealed that they prefer investing in the aforementioned regions. Explaining this, a spokesperson for Bloomberg, a news and media company, said:

Abry prefers to invest in North America and Europe.

The firm typically invests between $25 million and $150 million of equity in case of the private equity fund or between $15 million and $50 million of mezzanine/senior equity capital or between $50 million and $125 million in buyouts of mid market companies.

It seeks to invest for a period between three years and seven years.

Abry claim that the acquisition of the domain registry marks an important step in the growth of the company since Donuts shares a similar vision for market expansion. Speaking about this, Erik Brooks, Managing Partner at Abry Partners, commented:

Donuts is ideally positioned with the world’s largest portfolio of new TLDs, a proven team with deep experience in scaling successful technology companies, and a track record of innovation in their industry. We are excited to partner with Donuts and support their next phase of growth and success.

Industry experts claim that this move has taken some serious shape, especially after Abry acquired SiteLock earlier this year. Looks like Abry are leaving no stone unturned to emerge as one of the leading entities to invest in the domain and hosting business.