Increases client base to 250,000 with the addition of 100,000 SME customers of PlanetDomain.

NetRegistry, a web hosting provider, has acquired the assets of PlanetDomain from Primus Telecommunications for over $8m. The acquisition was funded with cash and debt.

PlanetDomain is a top 5 Australian domain name and web hosting company serving over 100,000 domestic and international SMEs. The company is profitable and will continue to be managed by its current staff in Melbourne. NetRegistry is the second largest Australian hosting company and has over 150,000 SME customers.

"NetRegistry has direct access to vast numbers of SME businesses via fixed line, mobile, email and web property eyeballs. Our quality of service scored a perfect 5/5 in the recent HosTest.NET survey, one of only 3 companies globally to do so. NetRegistry now dominates the Australian market in domain name registrations, with 27% market share for 2006. This acquisition leverages NetRegistrys world-renowned clustered infrastructure for small business application hosting, which will be used to expand the range of services available to PlanetDomain customers to include offerings in high growth Online Marketing and Advanced Hosting Services. Our strategy is to acquire relationships with SMEs at the start of their online journey, buying a domain name. We then apply our proven skills in customer service to build trust and loyalty, gradually increasing the breadth of subscription services provided," says Larry Bloch, CEO of NetRegistry.