Melbourne IT has acquired Versign’s Digital Brand Management Services (DBMS) division for $50 million.
DBMS offers a portfolio of digital brand security services, including domain name management, global brand expansion services and digital brand monitoring solutions. Services include brand and fraud protection and “global digital brand expansion.” According to a release Verisign put out when the service launched in 2006, the service “benefits marketing executives by allowing the marketing team to holistically and globally manage the customers’ online experience with the firm’s brands.”
Melbourne IT was originally part of Melbourne University and was Australia’s equivalent to Network Solutions, maintaining a monopoly on .com.au registrations until 2002. The company is best remembered locally as one of the boom/ bust stocks of the first dot-com bubble, reaching lofty heights after listing in 1999. Melbourne IT was one of the first companies globally to be granted access to .com sales, being one of five granted the rights to .com sales by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers as Network Solutions monopoly was slowly unwound in 1999. MelbourneIT built a global client base based on undercutting Network Solutions rates at the time by 10%.
(via DomainTools)