NEW YORK, NY – New York City-based website building and hosting company Squarespace announced this week that they will be entering into an agreement to purchase Google Domains – a domain name registrar operated by Google that offers domain registration, DNS hosting, dynamic DNS, domain forwarding, and email forwarding – in a deal that includes all of the company’s assets, which includes approximately 10 million domains that are owned by millions of customers.
Following a transition period, Google Domains is slated to be permanently closed, with all of their previous services to be carried out going forward under the Squarespace banner.
Squarespace Founder and CEO Anthony Casalena issued a statement confirming the acquisition of Google Domains, acknowledging the company’s vast importance to the internet landscape and vowing to carry on, evolve, and expand their work going forward.
We are exceptionally proud to be chosen to serve the customers of the Google Domains business,” he said. “Domains are a critical part of web infrastructure and an essential piece of every business’s online presence. We look forward to serving these new customers as we have served millions using our domain products and are committed to ensuring a seamless transition.”
Vice President and General Manager of Merchant Shopping at Google, Matt Madrigal, promised that the transition of Google Domains’ services to Squarespace would be smooth and seamless, and that his team would ensure that their millions of users would not experience any issues. He went on to note that the former Google Domains could be expanded upon and complemented by the Squarespace purchase, with the company’s website building services and more now being made available to its users.
Part of the purchase agreement involves Squarespace promising to adhere to the renewal prices for all current Google Domains customers for a minimum of one year following the successful completion of the acquisition. Discounts will also be offered to Google domains customers if they wish to utilize Squarespace’s website building and other services.
The acquisition is scheduled to close in the third quarter of 2023, following successful regulatory approvals.
It will be interesting to see if Google, a company with a long history of promoting its own services over others will continue to suggest the registration of a domain name when creating a Google business profile as well as using other Google related services.
About The Author: John Colascione is Chief Executive Officer of Internet Marketing Services Inc. He specializes in Website Monetization, is a Google AdWords Certified Professional, authored a ‘how to’ book called ”Mastering Your Website‘, and is a key player in several Internet related businesses through his search engine strategy brand Searchen Networks®
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