Donuts and Afilias announced today that Donuts is acquiring Afilias in a deal that is expected to close in December 2020 for an undisclosed amount. The combined entities will support over 25 million domain names spanning well over 400 TLDs. The deal will not include certain Afilias businesses, such as the mobile software and registrar businesses, which will remain with Afilias’ original group of investors.

What it means for Donuts: The acquisition will enhance its portfolio of TLDs and expand its ability to provide digital identity services.

What it means for clients: Afilias’ registry customers will now have the opportunity to adopt Donuts’ innovations such as TrueName, Relevant Name Search and other services that help registrants secure their ideal online identities.

Afilias and Donuts report that there will be no changes to the seamless delivery of their services in the short run. “The Afilias and Donuts teams share a commitment to security, stability and reliability,” Donuts CEO Akram Atallah commented. “This will only grow stronger as we implement the best technologies and services from each organization while maintaining seamless delivery to our registry and registrar partners as well as our end registrants.”

Donuts owns and operates 242 gTLDs to suit a broad diversity of human and business interests, from .academy to .zone. This move will add over 200 Afilias-supported TLDs, including many managed on behalf of other operators. The Afilias registry business features a proven back-end registry platform and DNS solutions expertise that has a stellar 20-year record of enabling authoritative TLD directories and DNS. Afilias’ TLDs include an impressive array of top-level domains such as .info, .global, and .mobi, as well as country codes, dotBrands and other generic TLDs.

Commenting on the acquisition, Afilias CEO, Hal Lubsen said, “We are thrilled to choose Donuts as the steward for Afilias’ next phase. As a proven leader and innovator, we know that the combined services delivered to registry clients, registrars and employees will foster a healthier, more competitive market to the benefit of the entire domain community.”