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Tucows splurges $30 million on Ascio
Kevin Murphy,
March 19, 2019, 13:23:28 (UTC),
Domain Registrars
Tucows has spent almost $30 million on rival channel-focused registrar Ascio Technologies.
The company announced this morning that the $29.44 million deal will add about 1.8 million domains to its portfolio of managed names, along with an extra 500 resellers.
Ascio was generating $4 million of annual EBITDA before the deal closed, Tucows said in a press release, adding:
The Ascio reseller base fits squarely with Tucows’ core customer profile — ISPs, web hosting companies and website builders serving quality businesses that reward outstanding customer service with long-term loyalty.
Ascio has been owned by CSC Digital Brand Services since 2016, when it was acquired as part of a bundle of registrars in the NetNames group.
As a channel play, it was not really a fit with CSC’s core brand-protection market. It is of course a fit with Tucows, which owns OpenSRS.
The deal, which closed yesterday, has reduced choice in the space, which may not sit well with some resellers.
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It is rather interesting that OpenSRS jacked up their pricing and implemented a new pricing structure (which generally meant higher prices) after they’d acquired eNom… which was their biggest competitor.
It’s a shame to see such a lack of competition with the swath of consolidations in the past few years.