The valuable WebHosting.com domain name has changed hands. The new owner of WebHosting.com is Automattic, the company that owns and operates WordPress. I suspect WebHosting.com will become a web hosting platform appealing to operators of WordPress-based websites. For the time being, Automattic has a “coming soon” lander on WebHosting.com.
Historic Whois records at DomainTools show that WebHosting.com was previously owned by AT&T and registered at CSC. Within the last week, WebHosting.com transferred to MarkMonitor, and the domain name is showing Automattic, Inc. as the new registrant. Archive.org shows that the domain name wasn’t really used by AT&T in quite some time. It was previously forwarding to the webhosting subdomain within the ATT.com website.
Automattic owns quite a few popular brands in the WordPress ecosystem, and securing WebHosting.com was a smart move to build a brand in the web hosting space. I operate a few WordPress based websites, and while I know of some Automattic-owned brands (like Jetpack), I can’t think of one that does web hosting.
I imagine WebHosting.com will become a well-known brand name for WordPress users who want to migrate and operate WordPress websites. That should be a strong revenue stream for Automattic.
I presume the domain name was acquired privately. Perhaps AT&T will disclose the sale in a future SEC filing.
