Web.com announced yesterday their purchase of Network Solutions at roughly $561 million. Network Solutions was the original domain name registry for the U.S. Defense Information Systems Agency, controlling the .com, .org. and .net top-level domain names. Until ICANN was formed in 1998, Network Solutions was also the only place that users could buy a domain name.
What can we expect from Network Solutions now? In its press release, Web.com CEO David Brown says the integration strategy for Network Solutions “will be similar to our successful acquisition of Register.com, and we will be in a strong position to cross-sell and up-sell our services to Network Solutions’ approximately two million retail customers and hundreds of thousands of wholesale customers.”
The transaction, which is subject to Web.com shareholder approval as well as customary regulatory approvals and closing conditions, is expected to be completed in the fall of 2011.