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Register.com

From ICANNWiki
Type: Private
Industry: Registrar
Founded: USA, 1999
Founder(s): Richard Forman
Peter Forman
Ownership: Acquired by Web.com in July 2010
Headquarters: 575 8th Ave., 11th FL
New York,
NY 10018-3011
Country: USA
Employees: 489 (2008)
Revenue: $51.70 M (2008)
Website: Register.com
Twitter: @Register_com
Key People
David L. Brown, President

Gary S. Michel , EVP and CFO
Myles Trachtenberg, SVP and CIO

Register.com is a web hosting and internet domain register company based in New York, USA.

The company sells registration for general extensions like .com, .net, .org, .co, .biz, as well as ccTLDs such as: .uk, .us, .jp, and .ca. The company serves a range of customers, from individuals and small businesses to large corporations, and has more than 2.5 million domain names under its management.[1]

The company also offers email packaging, website hosting, website developing, security solutions, and internet marketing services. The headquarters of Register.com is located in New York City, with branches located in Baltimore and Halifix, United States, London, England, and Nova Scotia, Canada.

History

  • The company was founded in 1994 as an ISP under the name Forman Interactive by brothers Richard Forman and Peter Forman. The company changed its name to Register.com in 1999.
  • In 2000, Register.com issued an IPO and began trading on the NASDAQ, under the ticker symbol RCOM, pricing its share at $24.[3]
  • In 2004, the company was listed by Verisign as one of the top domain name registrars in the world.
  • In 2006, Register.com was sold to the San Francisco-based private equity firm Vector Capital Corporation for approximately $200 million.[5] David Moore was appointed as interim CEO of the company by Vector Capital after the acquisition.[6]. During his time, the company focused on cost reduction through better business practices.
  • On November 1st, 2006, Register.com announced the appointment of Larry Kutscher as CEO of the company.[7]. Under Kutscher, Register.com continued the strategy of supporting small business owners and entrepreneurs.[8]
  • Kutscher served as CEO of Register.com until July 2010,[9] when Register.com was acquired by Web.com for approximately $135 million.[10]

Products and Services

According to their official website, the products and services Register.com provides are:

  • Domain Registration - registrations for general extension, such as: .com, .net, .org , .co , .biz and also country based extensions, such as: .uk, .us, .jp, .ca
  • Email Packages - Different packages for single users, multi-users, professionals and business entities.
  • Website Development - Website design and development for standard websites, e-commerce websites, and custom websites.
  • Security Solutions - Different kinds of security solutions, such as standard SSL, premium SSL, wildcard SSL, etc.
  • Promotional Services - For example, online marketing, email promotion, visitor clicks, etc.

ICANN Registrar Accreditation

In March 1999, the ICANN Board posted the Statement of Registrar Accreditation Policy to implement a program for registrar accreditation for the .com, .net, and .org TLDs. From March 11 to April 8, 1999, ICANN accepted applications from entities seeking accreditation to participate as one of the five domain name registrars in the SRS Testbed Program.[11]

On April 21, 1999, ICANN announced Register.com was one of the first five testbed registrars for the competitive Shared Registry System. On June 7th, the company began operations under this name as a paid registrar in the .com, .net, and .org domains, along with AOL, CORE, France Telecom/Oléane and MelbourneIT.[12]

Vector's acquisition of Register.com

Register.com launched a very successful IPO in 2000, and was one of the pioneer companies in the internet business for 4 to 5 years. In 2005, however, as the demand for domain names slowed, Register.com’s revenue and market value fell significantly and the company began to face different challenges.[13] The company developed a strategy to focus on small businesses and providing online services to serve that segment of the market, but still continued to underperform in terms of revenue and in the stock market.[14]

On August 9th, 2005, Register.com announced a merger agreement with Vector Capital Corporation, a San Francisco-based private equity firm.[15] Public shareholders of Register.com received cash consideration of $7.81 per share in the merger. Following the merger, Register.com was once again privately held and was no longer listed on the NASDAQ National Market.[16]

DDoS Attacks

On January 6th, 2001, Register.com had a severe Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack that lasted for an entire week. It was the first major attack using DNS servers as reflectors.[17]

On April 1st, 2009, Register.com suffered another major DDoS attack, disrupting thousands of web sites.[18] The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security were engaged to help Register.com solve the issue.[19] Servers experienced different kinds of problems for almost three days and the system was restored through counter-measures which minimized the disruption.[20]

Web.com's acquisition of Register.com

On June 17, 2010, Vector Capital announced an agreement under which Web.com acquired Register.com for approximately $135 million. [21]

Larry Kutscher, CEO of Register.com, said, "Since 2005, Vector has been a dedicated, hands-on partner working with our team to grow our business, maximize our operating efficiency and helping us become a preferred provider to small business customers. This announcement is the next step in the process of positive growth that we have achieved with Vector. Register.com's acquisition by Web.com will create an industry leader with the scale and breadth to further support small business customers in maximizing their presence on the web." [22]

In his statement, Web.com's President and CEO David Brown said, "We are very excited to announce our agreement to acquire Register.com, which will bring highly complementary products, sales channels and operating capabilities to Web.com.” [23]

Awards

Register.com has received awards and recognitions for their role as a pioneer business entity in internet and web-based business. They received "An Outstanding Customer Service Experience" from J.D. Power and Associates for 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009, "Shared Hosting Provider" from The Web Host Directory for 2008 and 2009, "Editors Choice Award" from HostingFindMyHost.com for 2009,[24] the "#1 Shared Hosting Provider" award for The Web Host Directory for 2005 and 2006, the "Users Choice Award" for Name Intelligence in 2005, and "Stevie Award Finalist" with the American Business Awards for 2005. They were rated number 1 in Top 10 Best Rated Website Hosting Reviews by Website-Hosting-Reviews.net. [25]

References

External links

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