In a surprise and unexpected announcement, Google announced that it is winding up its domain business service and has entered a transition period as Squarespace will be acquiring all the assets related to the Google domains service.
Squarespace in its announcement said that it has entered into a definitive asset purchase agreement with Google, whereby the website-building platform will acquire all the assets relating to the Google Domains business. This would also include a whopping 10 million plus domains that Google’s service was hosting across millions of customers.
Google initiated the Domains service in the year 2014 as a part of an experiment but since then it transitioned into one of the largest domain registrars with 10 million plus domains half of which are under .com. Google is the fifth largest domain registrar to host .com domains.
Google in its statement said that it has decided to divest this business “in keeping our efforts to sharpen our focus.”
Squarespace has cleared that customers will remain on the Google’s registrar platform while the transition takes place and will honor Google Domains renewal price for current customers for at least 12 months. Squarespace will be the exclusive domain name provider for any customers purchasing a domain along with their workspace subscription form Google for a minimum 3 years.
The deal between Squarespace and Google is expected to close in Q3.