Tucows has acquired Ascio, a Denmark based registrar.
Ascio is a good fit for Tucows, as it is a 100% reseller focussed business which offers a broad range of both ccTLD domains and gTLDs. The company offers a range of tools to help resellers easily see which policies apply to the various domain extensions, as well as a number of integration options that work well with other software. (Disclosure: my own company used to be one of their resellers years ago)
Tucows announced that they will pay $29.44 million for the transaction. I’m not sure how many domains Ascio accounts for, but they are a logical fit for Tucows and the ccTLD expertise will work well with their existing offerings.
Here’s the full announcement:
TORONTO, March 19, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Tucows Inc. (NASDAQ:TCX, TSX:TC), a provider of network access, domain names and other Internet services, announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire wholesale domain name registrar Ascio Technologies from CSC®. The transaction closed yesterday.
Tucows will pay $29.44 million and the transaction is expected to be immediately accretive to operating cash flow. The purchase price will be funded through Tucows’ existing credit facility.
The acquisition of Ascio adds approximately 1.8 million domains under management and approximately 500 active resellers. The Ascio reseller base fits squarely with Tucows’ core customer profile — ISPs, web hosting companies and website builders serving quality businesses that reward outstanding customer service with long-term loyalty.
Ascio also expands Tucows’ product portfolio with one of the most complete offerings of country code TLDs (ccTLDs) and generic TLDs (gTLDs) in the world.
Jørgen Christensen, Managing Director of Ascio commented, “This deal is all about focus. We wanted to find a buyer who would focus on our resellers so that CSC can focus on managing brands for the biggest and best companies around the world.”
“This acquisition makes perfect sense for Ascio’s resellers, our business and our shareholders,” added David Woroch, Tucows’ Executive Vice President of Domains. “Ascio’s resellers get a customer-focused provider that is investing in its wholesale channel. Tucows gets an excellent business with a deeply experienced team, additional domain products, including more than 50 ccTLDs, and a high-quality customer base that strengthens our European presence. And our shareholders get the benefit of Tucows’ even greater scale and efficiency as the world’s largest wholesale domain registrar.”
The contribution from this transaction, based on a partial year and transaction costs, was contemplated in the 2019 guidance provided by Tucows on February 13, 2019. Pre-acquisition, the Ascio business generated approximately $4 million of annual EBITDA. Tucows is required to apply acquisition accounting to the assets and liabilities acquired, including fair valuation of the acquired deferred revenue balance, which will lower the reported Adjusted EBITDA1 contribution in the first approximately one year period following the acquisition. The acquisition is expected to provide synergies over the next 12 to 18 months which, along with the inclusion of full year financial results, is expected to generate an internal rate of return and multiple that are in line with Company benchmarks.
