Failed .org buyer Ethos Capital buys Donuts
Donuts is to be acquired by Ethos Capital, the private equity company that tried and failed to buy .org manager Public Interest Registry a year ago.
Donuts tells me that Ethos is to purchase the controlling interest in the company from Abry Partners, which acquired Donuts two years ago.
The value of the deal, which comes hot on the heels of Donuts’ acquisition of Afilias, was not disclosed.
It also confirmed that former ICANN CEO Fadi Chehadé, who used to work for Abry, is co-CEO of Ethos along with founder Erik Brooks.
Donuts is of course headed by Akram Atallah, who used to be Chehadé’s number two at ICANN.
Given Ethos’ proposed acquisition of PIR was rejected by ICANN due to .org’s unique circumstances as a legacy non-profit concern, it strikes me as unlikely this deal will face the same degree of regulatory scrutiny, though Chehadé’s involvement may raise eyebrows.
The company holds the largest portfolio of gTLDs, with about 260 owned-and-operated strings and contracts to back-end a couple hundred more.
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Ethos are definitely going to be raising prices.
This “development” surpised no one, I guess…