Domain Industry News

I hate to be the bearer of sad news, but I learned that Adam Matuzich passed away a week ago at just 36 years old.

I first met Adam via Mike Berkens more than ten years ago when he was working as Mike’s tech guy. Over the years, Adam and I had quite a few conversations about domain names and web development. There were a few times I had technical questions, and Adam was always happy to help me or steer me in the right direction. Adam provided some critical assistance to me when I dealt with a problem in 2014, and I appreciated his willingness to share information with me.

I was fortunate to be able to

According to a press release I received a moment ago (and published below), MMX has acquired ICM Registry, the company that operates several adult related domain extensions. ICM Registry extensions include .XXX, .Sex, .Porn, and .Adult.

The press releases stated that the deal involves “a combination of cash and shares,” although the dollar amount was not revealed in the press release I received. The Palm Beach Post published an article about the deal and wrote that the “British firm Minds + Machines Group paid $10 million in cash for the company.” I am not sure if the total value of the deal is $10 million or if that is just the cash portion as the Post reported. I will connect with the ICM Registry to try and clear this up.

Update: ICM CEO Stuart Lawley clarified this discrepancy for me. He reported the total value of the deal is $41 million, with $10 million in cash and $31 million worth of stock at yesterdays’s closing price. Here’s a link to the official stock market announcement.

On May 2, Domain Incite reported that “New gTLD registry MMX could announce plans to be acquired as early as this week.” I am not sure if this means MMX will not be acquired or if there could be a subsequent announcement coming.

Here’s the press release that was sent to me by the ICM Registry: