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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.
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.