In an announcement, GoDaddy is acquiring Neustar’s registry business that oversees level domains like .biz, .co, .in, .nyc and .us. This puts GoDaddy in charge of those domains.
From this point on, domain name registrars will be paying GoDaddy the wholesale price for registering those domains for thier customers.
This business will now be called GoDaddy Registry, and has pledged to keep their domain name registration business separate from the new GoDaddy Registry. This is probably to prevent unfair advantages.
According to GoDaddy’s announcement:
“As part of the transaction, GoDaddy will strictly adhere to a governance model that maintains independence between the GoDaddy registry and registrar businesses.”
The intention is for the Registry side to operate as a relatively autonomous independent business.
Part of the acquisition includes Neustar’s Managed Registry Services business that manages the two hundred plus additional top level domains, including brand TLDs and generic TLDs.
With a managed registry service, it can help a brand creation of a brand top level domain name and to manage it. This includes legal and regulatory obligations to the organization that administers domain names and IP addresses, The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).
Malicious Activity Management is a part of this Managed Registry Services business, so it can satisfy ICANN requirements to not host malicious activities like botnets and malware.
Although GoDaddy has positioned itself to try helping small businesses innovate, the company has acquired detractors for a number of reasons over the years.
As an example, a publisher complained that GoDaddy put their whole account on hold because GoDaddy received complaints about link building emails. The publisher had to pay a deposit in order to regain access to the domains.
Over on WebmasterWorld this was a typical comment:
“If GoDaddy were to go anywhere near my main registrar I’d moved everything immediately, period!”
Another forum member criticized GoDaddy’s customer help:
“Only thing I’d say about GoDaddy is their support is geared for the masses, 48-hour turnaround style and low-level tech support which involves perseverance if not a simple problem. ”
The acquisition make sense since it aligns perfectly with GoDaddy’s existing business model.
Read GoDaddy’s announcement: GoDaddy Acquires Neustar’s Registry Business