.CO

Neustar closed on its acquisition of the .CO Registry yesterday afternoon, and the $100+ million deal was wrapped up. The Miami Herald had an interesting story that covered the closing, and it also had some of the backstory about how the deal came about with .CO Registry founder Juan Diego Calle offering some comments. I think it’s worth a read when you have a chance.

As some people have pointed out, timing played a role in the sale of the company. From the article:

“The timing was right for both sides, Calle said. “We are going from a very regulated environment where there are a limited number of domain extensions into a world where there is essentially an unlimited number of options for consumers,” said Calle, referring to the thousands of new domain name options coming into the marketplace. “There’s this movement by the larger players in the industry to consolidate their positions of power and be market leaders in the new paradigm, and here we are, .CO, the most appealing of the new alternatives, so you can grab that asset and make it your flagship brand.

The team that helped build the .CO brand will be