Top Level Domain Holdings Limited (AIM:TLDH.L), the only publicly traded company focused exclusively on acquiring and operating new generic top-level domains (“gTLDs”), is pleased to announce that it has applied to ICANN for the .budapest gTLD with the exclusive support of the City of Budapest.
Should the application be successful, Top Level Domain Holding’s wholly owned registry services company, Minds + Machines, will provide the back-end registry services for the proposed new domain. The City of Budapest will receive a revenue share.
Budapest is the capital of Hungary and the European Union’s seventh largest city. It is recognized as a major global tourist destination and the financial centre for Central Europe.
Peter Dengate Thrush, Chairman of TLDH, commented:
We are delighted that the government of another major world city has elected to work with us. We fully understand our responsibility to the City of Budapest and to its residents and businesses, and we look forward to providing them with a first-class service. We view this as an important addition to our portfolio of geographical domains.
According to ICANN rules, an applicant for a geographical gTLD must have the support of the relevant governmental authority. Only one application can be made on behalf of a city. As such, geographic applications that have the support of the relevant municipality/authority, cannot be contested by another bidding group.
In addition to .budapest, the Company has been selected by the relevant governmental authorities of London, Miami, Bavaria, and North-Rhine Westphalia for their geographic top-level domains.
The Board expects that ICANN will publish all applications which it considers complete and ready for evaluation by ICANN prior to the ICANN meeting in Prague in late June 2012, following which the Directors will provide further information on those applications submitted by the Company on its own and its clients behalf which have been approved for evaluation.
For further information, please contact:
Top Level Domain Holdings Limited
North America
Antony Van Couvering
Tel: +1 917 406 7126
Beaumont Cornish Limited (Nomad)
Roland Cornish
Michael Cornish
Tel +44 (0) 20 7628 3396
XCAP Securities plc (Joint Broker)
Karen Kelly
Halimah Hussain
Tel: +44 (0) 20 3216 2661/2667
Daniel Stewart & Company plc (Joint Broker)
Martin Lampshire
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7776 6550
gth media relations
Toby Hall/Suzanne Johnson Walsh
Tel: +44 (0) 20 3103 3903/2
About Top Level Domain Holdings Limited
Top Level Domain Holdings is a publicly-traded holding company listed on the London AIM market. The company is focused on the new top-level domain space. Top-level domains, such as .com, run by VeriSign (NASDAQ: VRSN), and .biz, run by NeuStar (NYSE: NSR), are regulated by ICANN. ICANN has announced plans to expand the number of top-level domains. TLDH intends to make targeted investments in this space, focusing on both infrastructure technologies and specific top-level domains.
About Minds + Machines
Minds + Machines is a registry services provider that works internationally with commercial organisations, cities, not-for-profits, and entrepreneurs to secure and operate new web domains, known as top-level domains (TLDs). Minds and Machines Limited is a wholly owned subsidiary of Top Level Domains Holdings Limited.