The .PRO domain is set to grow with strategic focus from the company.

Afilias, a provider of internet infrastructure services and the Registry operator for .INFO, yesterday announced that it has acquired Registry Services Corporation (d.b.a. RegistryPRO), the ICANN-designated operator of the .PRO TLD, from Hostway Corporation. Under the terms of the deal, Karim Jiwani will be the President of RegistryPRO and continue to spearhead .PRO growth initiatives, leveraging the company's technology.

The company says that this brings to 17 the number of top-level domains that it supports, including seven generic TLDs (gTLD) operating under ICANN contracts and seven new TLDs launched since 2001. The company provides Registry and DNS services for over 20 million domains, including more than eight million .INFO domains and one million .MOBI domains registered worldwide. In addition, it supports .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) and .XXX.

"Since its 2004 launch, the .PRO domain has helped professionals in a variety of fields across the world enhance their visibility on the Internet," said Hal Lubsen, CEO of Afilias. "But it takes attention, dedication and resources to help a TLD achieve its full strategic potential. That's why Afilias, which is focused on building TLDs, is excited to have .PRO join our portfolio of growing, successful domains."

Jiwani said, "I am excited that the .PRO domain will soon be able to take advantage of Afilias' market-leading registry services platform to give .PRO customers the best possible service. In the meantime, we'll be operating on a business-as-usual basis until the migration plan is complete."