Morrison & Foerster advised Boston-based private equity firm Ethos Capital on its acquisition of Public Interest Registry (PIR), a nonprofit generic top-level domain registry that operates multiple domains including one of the world's largest (.ORG), and all of its assets from the Internet Society. Announced on November 13, 2019, the deal is expected to close during the first quarter of next year.
PIR was established in 2002 by the Internet Society, a nonprofit dedicated to ensuring the open development, evolution, and use of the Internet, to manage and operate the .ORG domain. With more than 10 million domain names registered worldwide, .ORG provides a global platform that preserves an open and secure Internet where diverse communities can establish a trusted online identity and freely share ideas. This transaction will provide the Internet Society with an endowment of sustainable funding, while allowing PIR to expand its work.
The MoFo deal team was led by Boston private equity partner Todd Boudreau with San Francisco finance partner Darío Avram and Boston private equity of counsel Kevin Madden.