Webcentral has acquired a domain name company called New Domain services. The deal was finalized at a price of $5 million. The reason behind this acquisition is a purported relaunch of an old brand belonging to the firm.
Webcentral
Webcentral is an Australian digital services provider. The firm helps an organization to grow digitally. They do so by providing a range of services that include cloud based services, domain name registration, hosting, application development, search engine optimisation and data analytics.
These range of services helps an entity not very familiar with the web ecosystem a unique opportunity to grow and flourish. People unfamiliar with this world find it difficult to pay attention to all the little details that get your platform viewership.
Webcentral bridges this gap and helps small and medium scale businesses to appear prominently in cyberspace. It currently serves more than 330,000 small and medium businesses and 2,500 Enterprise, Wholesale and Government customers
Legacy
The company has been here for a while. It was the first domain name company in all of Australia, being established in 1996. It has been publicly traded in the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) since as far as 1999.
Clearly the legacy of the company runs deep. Being 25+ years old in an industry as fluid as this, shows its adaptability and persistence.
The company has gone through several changes through the course of its history. It had been earlier named Melbourne IT Group. However, the company wanted to explore other options outside the domain name space as well. To commemorate this change, the company opted for a new branding and hence the name was changed to Arq Group.
Arq Group was however later separated from the company’s mainstream and was made a separate individual firm. This separate entity was further acquired by NCS group.
Post the separation, the company was again rebranded to its current name, as Webcentral. Shortly after the name change it was bought by 5G Networks.
Why New Domain?
New Domain Services is a Melbourne based internet security firm. Among the forerunners of the firm was Mr. Jonathan Horne. Mr. Horne is the Founder of New Domain. He had been closely associated with Webcentral ever since its acquisition by 5G Networks.
Australian domain space witnessed an industry shackling change. Australian entities finally gained access to .au domain extension. Earlier, the available Australian TLDs were second level, like .com.au.
Mr. Horne had been a prominent support in Webcentral’s launch of .au domains. Along with the acquisition Mr. Thorne has also joined Webcentral. He has assumed the role of CEO of Melbourne IT.
Melbourne IT
The long unused brand of the company, Melbourne IT is about to make a comeback. The launch of a premium Australian TLD, has created a buzz in the Australian internet ecosystem. Through the launch of Melbourne IT, the company aims to tap on the corporate side of this buzz.
Melbourne IT is a brand that is imprinted in the memory of the people. It is associated with trust and dependability. New Domain services, in addition to corporate expertise in security, gives organizational support to it as well.
With industry veteran, Mr. Horne at its helm Webcentral would be looking to capture the current tide in Australian domain name space. Will they be successful at it? We certainly hope so!
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