WIRELESS AND MOBILE NEWS

Afilias announced that it has acquired mTLD Top Level Domain Ltd., the sponsoring organization and registry operator for the .mobi top-level domain.

Under terms of the private deal, Afilias Limited, an Irish Limited company, has acquired all of the issued and outstanding capital stock of mTLD Top Level Domain Ltd. (known publicly as dotMobi), and plans to continue operating dotMobi as a wholly owned subsidiary.

"Afilias has long been a leader in launching new TLDs and now supports over 50 percent of the entire universe of registrations in TLDs launched since 2001," said Hal Lubsen, CEO of Afilias. "Our acquisition of dotMobi reflects our long term commitment to the success of the TLDs we support and the communities they serve.  We are particularly proud of the global success of the .mobi domain, and look forward to working with the dotMobi team and the mobile community to build on this solid base."

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Afilias and dotMobi have worked closely together since the Mobi JV (predecessor to dotMobi) was started by Nokia, Vodafone and Microsoft to apply to ICANN for the .mobi TLD in 2004.  Upon approval, Afilias provided registry services in support of the successful launch in 2006, and today there are nearly one million .mobi registrations.  Now more established, dotMobi will benefit from the increased focus that a seasoned registry expert like Afilias will provide.  

"The mobile Web continues to evolve and expand, and Afilias' strategic domain expertise combined with mobile industry support will be a powerful accelerant for .mobi growth," said Trey Harvin, CEO of dotMobi. "Afilias' strategies for growing top-level domains have directly resulted in several of the world's largest domains, and we are excited to work closely with Afilias' management to achieve dotMobi's full potential."

"With its excellent registry and DNS support, Afilias has been a close partner since the beginning," said Jerry Easom, Chairman of the Board of dotMobi. "This partnership, coupled with the success of dotMobi in furthering acceptance of the mobile web, makes moving the ownership of dotMobi to Afilias a natural progression.  dotMobi founders, who include some of the largest companies in the mobile space, are looking forward to supporting dotMobi and the .mobi domain with involvement in both the MAG (.mobi Advisory Group) and the PAB (dotMobi Policy Advisory Board)."

Afilias provides registry and DNS services for more than 15 million domains, including more than 950,000 .mobi domains registered worldwide. In addition, Afilias supports .INFO, .ORG,  .aero, .ASIA, .AG (Antigua and Barbuda), .BZ (Belize), .GI (Gibraltar), .HN (Honduras), .IN (India), .LC (St. Lucia), .ME (Montenegro), .MN (Mongolia), .SC (the Seychelles), .VC (St. Vincent and the Grenadines).