Domain Registry Firm – Donuts Inc. recently raised $110 million fund from Silicon Valley Bank, a division of SVB Financial Group, to support its move to acquire Rightside Groups Ltd.
Earlier in June 2017, the two companies had announced entering into an agreement for merger under which Donuts will acquire Rightside for $10.60 per share, approximately $213MM in cash.
With the $110 credit facility extended by SVB, and participating banks, including N.A., Pacific Western Bank, Cadence Bank, Umpqua Bank and Comerica Bank, Donuts completed its merger with the Rightside Group and has enough funding for its other corporate purposes.
Donuts chief executive officer, Bruce Jaffe, said, “We are delighted to partner with Silicon Valley Bank and are gratified by the enthusiastic response from co-lenders,”
He added further, “SVB understands deeply our business and our industry and did a terrific job in forming a syndicate of leading institutions. This financing will help to fuel our growth, as we focus on helping individuals and organizations to transform their online branding capabilities.”
Donuts is one of the leading names in the domain name registry sector, especially for top level domain extensions. It owns 238 domain name extensions like .movie, .LTD, .email, .school, .agency, and .group.
While, Rightside also provides domain name services and is a gTLD registry operator. It owns top-level domains like .band, .sale and .dance.
The merger was unanimously approved by Rightside’s Board of Director.
The merger has simplified the brand protection for brand owners. Earlier, brand owners had to purchase both Donut’s and Rightside’s Domain Protected Marks List(DPML), but now they just have to buy Donuts’ DPML and it will cover all top level domains around 240.
The deal reportedly does not have any financing condition and is expected to close around third quarter of this year.
After the successful close of the transaction, Rightside will operate as the wholly-owned subsidiary of Donuts. Donuts being a privately held entity, Rightside’s common shares will no longer be listed on the public market.
