Global Name Registry
 | |
| Type: | Privately Held |
| Industry: | Registry |
| Founded: | London, England, 2000 |
| Headquarters: | London E14 |
| Country: | UK |
| Website: | gnr.com |
| Key People | |
| Hakon Haugnes, President | |
GNR, or Global Name Registry, was a domain name registry operator and technology infrastructure company. They were the domain registry operator for the .name gTLD and were bought in 2008 by Verisign.
History
Global Name Registry was founded in 1999 to "provide personalized communication".[1] The headquarters of Global Name Registry was located in London, UK. A number of important investors supported Global Name Registry, including Four Seasons Venture AS, Northzone Ventures AS, and Carlyle Europe Venture Partners.
ICANN assigned Global Name Registry to be the domain registry operator of .name domains on August 1st, 2001. The actual debut of .name domains happened shortly thereafter, in 2002. Global Name Registry saw the .name domains as being a tool which could offer "individuals worldwide personal, memorable digital identities". The most important services offered by Global Name Registry included a personalized domain name and a personalized e-mail address with forward capabilities.
Global Name Registry was acquired by Verisign on October 1st, 2008.[2] Verisign was approved as being the new .name gTLD operator by ICANN in 2009.