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CVC acquires majority stake in Namecheap for $1.5B
- nathanaldensr 1y agoAnother private equity acquisition. Hooray!
- kristopolous 1y agoSo looks like I should move my domains, what's the recommendation
- jonah-archive 1y agoI advise people to use porkbun generally. Personally I use and like EasyDNS, though their UI is a little quirky.
- anonym29 1y agonjal.la! famously founded by a co-founder of TPB. great prices, great privacy. probably among the least likely registrars to ever sell out to PE
- DrewADesign 1y agoDo you think they have an enshttifying strategy before hand? Or do you think they just get in there and McKinsey their way to a worse product on the fly?
- tensor 1y agoIt can be either, but in both cases the ultimate goals are the same: increase efficiency. So if they buy multiple domain registrars then they can share infrastructure and staff and become more efficient. Or, without merging companies they can simply change the goal from growth to efficiency and "make do with less" and then that naturally leads to enshitification.
- icyfox 1y agoGood for Namecheap. They're still my default when I'm searching for new domains, even though I end up registering somewhere else (their bulk search is still best in class imo). I'm a bit surprised at their revenue numbers considering domain registration is pretty much a commodity at this point. I always assumed non-technical people would first go to a web host/email provider that lets them buy a domain vs. a domain registrar that also supports email and web hosting. Clearly I'd be wrong.
- kennywinker 1y agoGood for namecheap, bad for everyone else.
- nine_k 1y ago> surprised at their revenue numbers I suppose that web and email hosting, and "security services" constitute a large part of it. Domain registration is not necessarily even the biggest part.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- HellsMaddy 1y agoPrivate equity seems to be a form of cancer that slowly sucks the life out of everything it touches, with a single goal: to grow and spread. Can someone more knowledgeable please explain to me why I'm wrong?
- freetanga 1y agoHave you seen “Other peoples money” with Danny de Vito? I felt it explains this cancer quite well, 35 years ago.
- rpjt 1y agoEfficiency?
- nine_k 1y agoThe classic playbook includes making a lot of debt, and then leaving the lenders holding the bag when the company files for bankruptcy. It can only be considered efficient if con artistry is efficient, that is, efficient at taking the money from the hands of people who trust other people "too much".
- dgrin91 1y agoThis is over simplistic and if everyone knew this is what happens when PE comes into play then no one would lend to PE-backed companies. Often times these debts can work out.
- queenkjuul 1y agoWork out for the banks and shareholders yeah. Not the company and its employees
- nzeid 1y agoThe reason it's easy to conclude that they're evil is because they are almost never committed to preserving or improving the quality of their investees. They are only committed to making money, and that often comes in the form of price gouging and liquidation.
- dymk 1y agoShould link to original article - https://www.wsj.com/business/deals/cvc-strikes-1-5-billion-deal-for-godaddy-rival-namecheap-a38fd014?mod=e2tw https://www.wsj.com/business/deals/cvc-strikes-1-5-billion-d... https://archive.ph/i9vOk https://archive.ph/i9vOk
- SilverElfin 1y agoAre there guides on how to move domains from Namecheap to whoever the new recommended provider is?
- blahyawnblah 1y agoTypically you just need to unlock the domain, obtain an authorization code from your current registrar, and then initiate the transfer process with the new registrar.
- nzeid 1y agoGoddamnit, I just moved everything to Namecheap to avoid more outages. Anyone have other recommendations in the event of the likely private equity rot?
- ectospheno 1y agoIf all you care about is avoiding outages and price then it is hard to beat cloudflare.
- paranoidrobot 1y agoiirc Cloudflare doesn't act like a normal registrar, however. You cannot use anyone except Cloudflare for your DNS provider.
- tensor 1y agoI've been using Gandi for years and recently have been consolidating things there. In the past I've used Google and still have some stuff and Namecheap too. Gandi is a little more expensive, but are consistently excellent. Especially now with their new UX and org support, it's super easy to manage domains from both corporate and personal accounts with one login.
- jsheard 1y agoGandi was also bought out by private equity a few years ago, as far as I know their service is still fine but they keep raising their prices without any rhyme or reason. They want $38 to renew a .com now, and despite those price hikes they also rugpulled users of their previously-included email service by turning it into a paid add-on. Look forward to Namecheap heading the same way in a few years!
- tensor 1y agoOh yeah? Dammit, I must have missed that news. That sucks. :-(
- steventruong 1y ago
- darinpantley 1y agoFor anyone wondering: "the deal covers both Namecheap and its sister platform, Spaceship."
- dismalaf 1y agoUgh, all my domains are with Namecheap, since Google stopped dealing with domains and CloudFlare and GoDaddy seem more evil. Also I appreciated Namecheap's support of Ukraine. Hopefully it's not too predatory and the owner just wanted to cash out some chips; some corps do okay under private equity (Suse for example) but lots get ripped to shreds...
- gavinsyancey 1y agoShit I have domains there. Anyone have recommendations for a good cheap registrar that supports .io?
- donperignon 1y agoSoon they will change their name to namexpensive… time to move on to other options not managed by vampires
- theturtle 1y agoPlease do not turn NameCheap to shit, CVC. It was a lot of effort to make the move when NameSecure... turned to shit.
- colesantiago 1y agooh sweet summer child. we are asking a shark to spare their appetite of goodwill to their food.
- Havoc 1y agoLiterally just renewed domains with them hours ago. Worrying that this is being seen as an acquisition worthy space
- Brajeshwar 1y agoWhat is the simplest, and least path of resistance to starting my own Registrar? Do I have to pay a fee for each TLDs, gTLDs that I want to be able to make it available for registration?
- woleium 1y agoBecome an ICANN-accredited registrar. This unlocks direct access to gTLD registries and their registry-registrar agreements, which contain provisions for registrar pricing and notice of fee changes.
- justsomehnguy 1y ago> Richard Kirkendall, founder and CEO of Namecheap, will remain with the company, retaining a significant shareholding and continuing to oversee its operations. I hope Mr. Kirkendall would continue to oversea its operations and continue to pay its employs a good salary. https://www.glassdoor.co.uk/Salary/Namecheap-Ukraine-Salaries-EI_IE994113.0,9_IL.10,17_IN244.htm https://www.glassdoor.co.uk/Salary/Namecheap-Ukraine-Salarie...
- tchbnl 1y agoPrivate equity has been a cancer for the web hosting community. A single firm bought the top two control panels (cPanel and Plesk), the top virtualization solution (SolusVM), and the top billing software (WHMCS). And each year the prices are raised further and further with no real investment. It's forced a lot of smaller providers out and caused prices for customers to skyrocket. And you have to put up with it because the alternatives still aren't quite as good, or you're too locked in. It's the same for hosting companies. A single PE firm (Endurance) owns over two dozen hosting and domain firms. The first thing they do is lay off the staff (because they already have outsourced agents) and strip the bits away until it's nothing more than a shell with a name for one of their other platforms. PE is a cancer, and I don't even know if I can count one that has ever been a net positive for a company. All they care about is extracting more and more until all that's left is a stone.
- rajnathani 1y agoSide: Namecheap’s CEO used to be pretty active on HN till recently: https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=namecheapceo https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=namecheapceo