NetNames was a British company that provided online

brand protection Brand protection is the process and set of actions that a right holder undertakes to prevent third parties from using its intellectual property without permission, as this may cause loss of revenue and, usually more importantly, destroys brand eq ...

, as well as

domain name A domain name is a string that identifies a realm of administrative autonomy, authority or control within the Internet. Domain names are often used to identify services provided through the Internet, such as websites, email services and more. As ...

management and acquisition services. It was the first specialist domain name registration company. Founded in 1997, it ceased trading under its original name after acquisition by CSC Digital Brand Services.

History

NetNames Ltd was founded as part of Webmedia Group by

Ivan Pope Ivan Pope (born 1961) is a British people, British technologist, involved in a number of early internet developments in the UK and across the world, including coining the term ''cybercafe'' at London's Institute of Contemporary Arts. He was a fo ...

in 1996 and demerged from it in 1997. NetNames invented and developed the concept of a standalone commercial domain name registration service which would sell domain registration and other associated services to the public. Netnames was acquired by NetBenefit plc in 1995 and renamed to Group NBT plc in 2004, the company officially consolidated all its corporate brands under the NetNames banner in January 2013.Group NBT becomes NetNames
Realwire. January 15, 2013. In 2011, NetNames was bought by private equity firm HG Capital and delisted from the Alternative Investment Market. The following year, NetBenefit ltd, NetNames’ managed hosting division, was sold to Canadian IT infrastructure provider

Peer 1 Aptum Technologies, formerly Cogeco Peer 1, is a provider of services for data centers and cloud computing.2016 Annual Report." Retrieved November 7, 2016. The company is headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. History Peer 1 Network Enterp ...

Hosting. In 2016 NetNames was sold by

HgCapital Hg is a private equity firm targeting technology buyouts primarily in Europe and the US. Hg focuses on investments in technology and services sectors. It invests out of its 8th £2.5 billion core fund and its 2nd £575 million Mercury fund, target ...

to US business services outfit CSC Global for an undisclosed sum. In 2018 CSC absorbed the NetNames brand into its own and NetNames stopped operating as a standalone entity.

Locations

The company was headquartered in London, with offices in Cambridge, Paris, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Zurich, Munich, New York, San Francisco, Melbourne and Singapore. A series of global acquisitions made NetNames “''one of the world’s largest corporate domain name management and online brand protection specialists''”. Its acquisitions included Ascio Technologies, INDOM and Cedel, as well as WebIP in AustraliaNetNames Enters Australian Market with Acquisition of WebIP
PR Newswire. April 29, 2014. and Adicio in Singapore.

Services

NetNames supported more than 2,000 companies globally, including a quarter of the UK’s FTSE 100 firms. In 2014,

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...

reported that NetNames had relationships with 240 registrars worldwide and could "have fake websites taken down within days".

Unilever Unilever plc is a British multinational consumer goods company with headquarters in London, England. Unilever products include food, condiments, bottled water, baby food, soft drink, ice cream, instant coffee, cleaning agents, energy drink, t ...

was one of NetNames’ biggest clients, with a portfolio of more than 10,000 domain names under management for all its global brands.

Certifications and Awards

NetNames was a founding member of

Nominet UK Nominet UK is currently delegated by IANA to be the manager of the .uk domain name. Nominet directly manages registrations directly under .uk, and some of the second level domains .co.uk, .org.uk, .sch.uk, .me.uk, .net.uk, .ltd.uk and .plc.uk. ...

, the

.uk .uk is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for the United Kingdom. It was first registered in July 1985, seven months after the original generic top-level domains such as .com and the first country code after .us. , it is the fift ...

domain name registry in the United Kingdom. In 1999, NetNames gained

ICANN The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN ) is an American multistakeholder group and nonprofit organization responsible for coordinating the maintenance and procedures of several databases related to the namespaces ...

accreditation status for domain registration. NetNames was named as a

Deloitte Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited (), commonly referred to as Deloitte, is an international professional services network headquartered in London, England. Deloitte is the largest professional services network by revenue and number of profession ...

& Touche Technology Fast 50 Winner in 2002 and was recognised again in 2004. NetNames was also selected by

Superbrands The Superbrands organization publishes surveys related to brands. The organization also publishes a series of brand-focused books and publications. Superbrands has offices in 90 countries. Background Superbrands was founded in 1994 by Marcel Kno ...

in its 2006/7 Top 50 eBrand Leaders.eSuperbrands
Superbrands.com. Retrieved September 10, 2015.

References

{{reflist Brand management 1996 establishments in the United Kingdom 2018 disestablishments in the United Kingdom

History

Locations

Services

Certifications and Awards

See also

References