Domain name registrar register.com
Monday received a $7 million investment from office supply retailer Staples, Inc. as part of a strategic
alliance designed to target small businesses.
Under terms of the partnership, the two firms will introduce a
cross-marketing campaign to help small business customers initiate
e-commerce activities and Web site registration. Staples.com and
register.com will link to one another’s sites via their homepages and
banner advertisements. In addition,
Staples will promote register.com’s service in its retail stores .
Register.com is one of the first five accredited companies chosen by the Internet Corp. for Assigned Names and
Numbers (ICANN) to register domain names upon the end of Network
Solutions’ monopoly. The company aims to enhance its services to small
businesses with its agreement with Staples, said Richard Forman,
register.com’s president and CEO.
“Since Staples also targets small- to medium-sized businesses, this
partnership represents a tremendous growth opportunity for both
companies,” he said.
“In addition to cross promoting our services to one
anothers Internet customers, we will also have an opportunity to
promote register.com in Staples superstores.”
The agreement with Staples adds the retailer to register.com’s list of
partners including GeoCities,
theglobe.com, Infoseek, USA.NET, First Data Corp.,
iMALL, Spree.com and Cybersource.