Stuart Lawley, outgoing CEO of the ICM Registry.
The ICM Registry is caching its chips, being acquired by MMX for a combination of cash and shares.
MMX now manages a sizable pornfolio portfolio of domain names, in the .XXX, .Sex, .Porn and .Adult gTLDs.
Stuart Lawley, outgoing CEO of the ICM Registry, becomes majority shareholder at MMX with a 15% share.
The ICM Registry has been a generous sponsor of DomainGang in the past, and we’d like to congratulate them on this new, exciting development.
The full press release by the ICM Registry follows:
Minds and Machines (MMX) Acquires ICM Registry LLC – Cash and Stock deal adds ICM’s 4 niche, adult TLDs to the MMX portfolio
4 May 2018 – Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.
It was announced today that Minds and Machines (MMX), the respected Top Level Domain (TLD) portfolio operator that is listed on the London Stock Exchange’s AIM market under symbol MMX.L, has acquired the entire ownership of ICM Registry LLC for a combination of cash and shares.
There has been increasing consolidation in the TLD operator market and ICM’s stable of highly profitable domain extensions attracted several offers from rival portfolio operators.
Stuart Lawley, the outgoing CEO of ICM, said, “Having successfully built and sold several technology businesses throughout my career in other consolidating markets, it became clear over the last few years that ICM’s business, shareholders and employees would be best served as part of a larger group with the corresponding resources, vision, opportunities and obvious cost savings that would bring.”
ICM’s 4 TLDs will be added to MMX’s portfolio of 28 extensions, which currently have over 1.4 M registrations.
With the exception of Lawley who is leaving to pursue blockhain based Age Verification business opportunities with his new business AVSecure.com, the rest of the existing management team will remain with ICM. Back end registry services will continue to be provided by Afilias, who has been a shareholder in ICM and will now become a sizeable and welcome shareholder in MMX going forwards.
Lawley went on to say, “I strongly believe ICM’s shareholders, customers and employees will be well served by this acquisition; MMX has a very dynamic management team. We received 4 offers in total for the business, some all cash and others a mixture of cash and stock. After lengthy, detailed negotiations and due diligence with the interested parties, the arrangement with MMX was clearly the best fit.”
As a sign of ICM’s confidence in MMX, post completion Stuart Lawley will become the largest shareholder in MMX with a holding just over 15% and as part of the transaction, the 5 remaining senior managers of ICM will all have meaningful stock holdings in MMX.
Lawley said, “We felt it was appropriate to reward all of our staff for their loyal, sterling and diligent efforts over the last 8 years and in particular the senior management team who will now become shareholders in MMX; their long term interests are perfectly aligned with the selling ICM shareholders and existing MMX holders. As they forge their new careers within the greater MMX group, they will hopefully be able to share more directly in the results of the fruits of their labor.”
He continued, “As part of our detailed due diligence on our potential suitors we were particularly impressed with both Toby Hall (CEO) and Michael Salazar (COO/CFO) who struck us as competent business managers in possession of the drive and vision needed to develop and execute a long term growth strategy in the top-level domain sector. We believe they are the ideal stewards for the ICM properties going forwards. With our specialty TLDs there goes great reward but also great responsibility, so we had to be very careful about who we chose to carry that torch going forward. I am delighted it will be MMX.”
