Web.com is an American
dot-com company that provides a
website builder, along with
website hosting,
domain name registration,
web development, and various
digital marketing services. It serves as a partner for very small to small-sized businesses and entrepreneurs, assisting them in establishing and expanding their online presence.
The company was founded in 1999 by Darin Brannan in
Jacksonville, Florida
Jacksonville ( ) is the most populous city proper in the U.S. state of Florida, located on the Atlantic coast of North Florida, northeastern Florida. It is the county seat of Duval County, Florida, Duval County, with which the City of Jacksonv ...
as Website Pros Inc.. In early 2008 it took its current name after acquiring Atlanta-based company Web.com, which was founded in 1981 by Waldemar Fernández and was formerly known as Interland, Inc.
In 2021, Web.com merged with
Endurance Web Presence to form a new company, Newfold Digital.
In 2025, Web.com became
Network_Solutions
Network Solutions, LLC, formerly Web.com, is an American-based technology company and a subsidiary of Web.com, the 4th-largest .com domain name registrar, with over 6.7 million registrations as of August 2018. In addition to being a domain name ...
.
Corporate overview
Web.com is based in
Jacksonville, Florida
Jacksonville ( ) is the most populous city proper in the U.S. state of Florida, located on the Atlantic coast of North Florida, northeastern Florida. It is the county seat of Duval County, Florida, Duval County, with which the City of Jacksonv ...
and incorporated in
Delaware
Delaware ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic and South Atlantic states, South Atlantic regions of the United States. It borders Maryland to its south and west, Pennsylvania to its north, New Jersey ...
, and provides
domain name
In the Internet, a domain name is a string that identifies a realm of administrative autonomy, authority, or control. Domain names are often used to identify services provided through the Internet, such as websites, email services, and more. ...
registration and
web development services, among others.
The company caters to very small and small businesses and offers a variety of subscription services designed for entrepreneurs including,
design
A design is the concept or proposal for an object, process, or system. The word ''design'' refers to something that is or has been intentionally created by a thinking agent, and is sometimes used to refer to the inherent nature of something ...
,
hosting,
management
Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a Government agency, government bodies through business administration, Nonprofit studies, nonprofit management, or the political s ...
,
e-commerce
E-commerce (electronic commerce) refers to commercial activities including the electronic buying or selling products and services which are conducted on online platforms or over the Internet. E-commerce draws on technologies such as mobile co ...
,
lead generation,
mobile commerce,
online advertising
Online advertising, also known as online marketing, Internet advertising, digital advertising or web advertising, is a form of marketing and advertising that uses the Internet to promote products and services to audiences and platform users. ...
,
search engine optimization, and
social media solutions.
Web.com reportedly had 3.3 million subscribers in January 2016.
The company has offices in more than 20 U.S. states, and in Argentina (
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...
), Canada (
Barrie, Ontario, and
Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada, located on its east coast. It is one of the three Maritime Canada, Maritime provinces and Population of Canada by province and territory, most populous province in Atlan ...
), and the United Kingdom (including
Cardiff
Cardiff (; ) is the capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of Wales. Cardiff had a population of in and forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area officially known as the City and County of Ca ...
, Wales).
Web.com was traded as "WEB" on
NASDAQ
The Nasdaq Stock Market (; National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the U.S. by volume, and ranked second on the list ...
.
David Brown served as Web.com's
chief executive officer
A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization.
CEOs find roles in variou ...
(CEO) until early 2019.
Okumus Fund Management was the company's top shareholder, with 18.64 percent as of March 2017. In 2015, Okumus and Web.com agreed to appoint two independent directors to its
board.
In May 2017, the company had 3,500 employees and a market capitalization of $1.1 billion. Web.com has a $1.21 billion valuation, as of June 2017.
History
Website Pros Inc.
David Brown established Website Pros Inc.'s predecessor, the technology services company Atlantic Teleservices, Inc., in Jacksonville in 1997. Brown served as CEO until 1999, when he sold the company to Website Pros, via the venture and growth equity investment firm Norwest Venture Partners. Website Pros was founded in 1999 by Darin Brannan. Brown joined the company's board of directors.[
The company planned to establish a chain of stores for people to access services to develop and maintain their own websites. The Collapse of the .com market in 2000, required the company to shift from a retail model to an indirect sales model to conserve capital. Brown then oversaw a series of acquisitions, averaging one per year for a decade. The largest of the acquired companies was NetObjects, a ]Redwood City, California
Redwood City is a city on the San Francisco Peninsula in the San Francisco Bay Area, Bay Area of Northern California, approximately south of San Francisco and northwest of San Jose, California, San Jose. The city's population was 84,292 accor ...
-based software company best known for developing the web design tool NetObjects Fusion.[ Website Pros purchased the company, including its GoBizGo and NetObjects Matrix assets,] in October 2001 for an undisclosed amount.[
Website Pros acquired the Spokane-based e-commerce services provider Innuity in 2002,][ resulting in the merged company's change from an upfront fee structure to monthly subscriptions.][ The company was growing by 40 percent annually by 2003,][ and had 260 employees (around 150 in Jacksonville and 110 in Spokane) by the end of the year.] Website Pros received $17 million in venture capital, which included $10 million in December 2003 from Insight Venture Partners and $7 million Norwest in April 2004. The '' Jacksonville Business Journal'' reported that Website Pros had 40,000 clients, including Discover Business Services and IBM
International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...
, at the time the company secured funding from Norwest.[ Brown began preparing Website Pros for an ]initial public offering
An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investm ...
in 2004,[ and the company went public in 2005.] Website Pros acquired eBoz and Leads.com, and reported $37.8 million in sales, in 2005.[ In 2006, Julius Genachowski joined Web.com's board, along with Hugh M. Durden and G. Harry Durity.] Website Pros acquired the Canadian company 1ShoppingCart.com, which offers software e-commerce services, for $12.5 million,[ as well as Renex, an online lead generation provider for contractors and homeowners, in late 2006.]
In 2007, Website Pros acquired the Atlanta-based company Web.com, which was founded in 1981 and formerly known as Interland, Inc. Under the agreement, which was valued at $129 million, Website Pros paid $25 million in cash and the rest in stock. Brown continued to serve as chairman and CEO of the merged company, and Jeff Stibel, who was serving as president and CEO of Web.com, became a president and board member of Website Pros. The company remained headquartered in Jacksonville, and the merger resulted in a more than three-fold increase in the number of paid subscribers.[
]
Web.com (2008–present)
Website Pros changed its name to Web.com in early 2008. In June, the company began trading as "WWWW"[ on NASDAQ; executives commemorated the change by closing the ]stock exchange
A stock exchange, securities exchange, or bourse is an exchange where stockbrokers and traders can buy and sell securities, such as shares of stock, bonds and other financial instruments. Stock exchanges may also provide facilities for ...
at Times Square
Times Square is a major commercial intersection, tourist destination, entertainment hub, and Neighborhoods in New York City, neighborhood in the Midtown Manhattan section of New York City. It is formed by the junction of Broadway (Manhattan), ...
's NASDAQ MarketSite on June 9.[ Stibel served as president until 2009.][ Web.com had nearly one million subscribers and was earning $120 million in revenue by the end of 2010.][
In 2012, the company became the title sponsor of the Web.com Tour, a developmental professional golf tour for the U.S.-based ]PGA Tour
The PGA Tour (stylized as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also known as the PGA Tour, the PGA Tour Champion ...
, in a deal that extends through 2021.[ In conjunction with the tour, Web.com hosts "summits", or designated spaces for people to meet company representatives and learn about its offerings; Web.com hosted 27 of these events in 2013.][ '' Financial News & Daily Record'' reported that the company had 500 employees in Jacksonville, plus an additional 1,400 in satellite offices, in October 2012.][ By 2014, Web.com had 2,000 employees in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, and Argentina.][
Web.com's customer service center in Drums, Pennsylvania opened in January 2016.] The company opened a digital customer service center in New Glasgow's Aberdeen Business Centre, in September 2016. The office became Web.com's third call center in Nova Scotia; the company also has offices in Halifax and Yarmouth.[ Web.com generated $710.5 million in revenue in 2016, an increase from $543.5 million in 2015.][
In March 2017, the International Customer Management Institute named Web.com a finalist in the "Best Large Contact Center" category at its annual Global Contact Center Awards, which recognize "companies and individuals that honor leadership, vision, innovation and strategic accomplishments within the customer service industry." In May 2017, the company relocated 175 employees within ]Scottsdale, Arizona
Scottsdale is a city in eastern Maricopa County, Arizona, United States, and is part of the Phoenix metropolitan area. Named Scottsdale in 1894 after its founder Winfield Scott (chaplain), Winfield Scott, a retired Chaplain Corps (United States ...
's SkySong development into the SkySong 4 building. Yodle, which was acquired by Web.com in 2016, had moved into SkySong in 2009. The new SkySong 4 office space will house administrative and sales operations.[ The company was reportedly approached by private equity firms about a possible buyout in 2017.]
On April 24, 2025, Web.com announced its merger with Network Solutions
Network Solutions, LLC, formerly Web.com, is an American-based technology company and a subsidiary of Web.com, the 4th-largest .com domain name registrar, with over 6.7 million registrations as of August 2018. In addition to being a domain name ...
, adopting the latter's brand name. This move is part of Newfold Digital's strategy to consolidate its brands, including merging iPage, HostMonster, and FatCow into Bluehost, its primary web hosting
A web hosting service is a type of Internet hosting service that hosts websites for clients, i.e. it offers the facilities required for them to create and maintain a site and makes it accessible on the World Wide Web. Companies providing web ho ...
brand.
Acquisitions and partnerships
In recent years, Web.com has grown via acquisitions.[ In 2023, it merged with ipage. The company acquired Solid Cactus, a provider of e-commerce and other online solutions, in 2009.] Web.com acquired Register.com in 2010 for $135 million, resulting in an 80 percent increase in revenue and a four-fold increase in the number of customers.[ The company's offices in Drums were formerly occupied by ]Network Solutions
Network Solutions, LLC, formerly Web.com, is an American-based technology company and a subsidiary of Web.com, the 4th-largest .com domain name registrar, with over 6.7 million registrations as of August 2018. In addition to being a domain name ...
, a domain registration company acquired by Web.com in 2011 for $405 million and 18 million stock shares. The acquisition increased Web.com's customer base to 3 million people, the number of domains under its management in 9 million, and the number of employees to nearly 2,000.[ Web.com executives rang the closing bell at the NASDAQ MarketSite on February 28, 2012, to commemorate the company's acquisition of Network Solutions.][ Web.com acquired SnapNames, an "expired" domain name service and marketplace,] and has a 50 percent partnership with Rightside in NameJet. The company acquired Scoot.com, the largest online business directory network in the United Kingdom, in July 2014. In 2016, Web.com purchased Rightside's domain name drop list registrar accreditations for $1.3 million,[ and acquired the New York-based marketing services firm Yodle for more than $300 million.][ The purchase marked Web.com's largest acquisition by volume to date, with 1,400 employees.] In December 2016, the company expanded into Latin America by agreeing to acquire the Argentina-based Donweb.com for $8 million. The deal was completed in February 2017.[ On November 14, 2019, Web.com closed its acquisition of Dreamscape Networks Limited.
Web.com has partnered with other companies to enhance its offerings to customers. In 2009, Web.com partnered with Chase Paymentech to provide payment processing services, as well as First Data to offer e-commerce, online marketing, and payment processing solutions to businesses. In 2014, MasterCard and Web.com partnered to feature the former's Simplify Commerce solution, which launched in 2013, as a preferred payment provider. According to the National Federation of Independent Business, Sam's Club partnered with Web.com in 2015 to offer online marketing services to small business owners. In February 2017, Domain Name Wire reported that Web.com gave away 375,000 .xyz domains to its customers, as part of an agreement with the ]top-level domain
A top-level domain (TLD) is one of the domain name, domains at the highest level in the hierarchical Domain Name System of the Internet after the root domain. The top-level domain names are installed in the DNS root zone, root zone of the nam ...
's registry, which received an advertising credit worth $3 million.
On June 21, 2018, Web.com announced an agreement to be acquired by an affiliate of Siris Capital Group, LLC. The agreement was for $25.00 per share in an all cash deal valued at approximately $2 billion. On August 6, 2018, Web.com announced an amended agreement to be acquired by an affiliate of Siris Capital Group, LLC for a revised amount of $28.00 per share in Cash and at the end of the "Go Shop" period.
Web.com merged with Endurance Web Presence to form a new company named Newfold Digital in 2021. Newfold Digital is a joint venture between Clearlake Capital, owner of Endurance Web Presences since 2021 and Siris Capital Group. In January 2019, Sharon Rowlands was named CEO.
During Oracle
An oracle is a person or thing considered to provide insight, wise counsel or prophetic predictions, most notably including precognition of the future, inspired by deities. If done through occultic means, it is a form of divination.
Descript ...
's Q2 2025 earnings call on March 10, 2025, Chairman Larry Ellison revealed that Newfold Digital, the parent company of Web.com, is migrating to Oracle Cloud alongside other companies like CrowdStrike and Palo Alto Networks to enhance security and boost performance.
References
{{WebManTools
Companies based in Jacksonville, Florida
Internet technology companies of the United States
Defunct software companies of the United States
Internet properties established in 1999
Companies formerly listed on the Nasdaq
Domain name registrars
Web hosting
1999 establishments in Florida
Technology companies based in the Jacksonville area
Technology companies based in Florida
Multinational companies based in Jacksonville