Web.com Acquires Network Solutions For $600 Million

Network Solutions, a domain registrar and web hosting solution, has been acquired by Internet service and online marketing solution company Web.com. The company acquired Network Solutions for $405 million in cash and 18 million in common stock shares of Web.com.

Web.com says their aim is to create an “end-to-end online solutions company” for small businesses with social media, online marketing, and other web service needs.

In a press release from David Brown, CEO of Web.com he describes their strategy:

…will be similar to our successful acquisition of Register.com, and we will be in a strong position to cross-sell and up-sell our services to Network Solutions’ approximately two million retail customers and hundreds of thousands of wholesale customers.

Way back when, Network Solutions was the original registrar for the U.S. Defense Information Systems Agency, controlling the distribution of .com, .org and .net top-level domain names. That is, until ICANN was formed in 1998. Back then, Network Solutions was the only place that users could buy a domain name.

Network Solutions isn’t the only domain registrar on the chopping block. Earlier this year the largest domain registrar, GoDaddy was acquired by three private equity firms for $2.25 billion.