Private investors backed by a firm called HgCapital have bought registrar Group NBT for around £153 million ($236 million).
UK-based Group NBT, which owns registrars such as NetNames and Ascio, accepted an all-cash offer at 550p per share. The move comes after Group NBT reported a 9% increase in profit before tax - £8.9 million ($13.8 million).
NetNames is one of Europe’s largest registrars and offers online trade mark protection services to brand owners.
In July 2011 the world’s largest registrar, Go Daddy, was purchased by three private investment firms for $2.25 billion.