Sale and purchase of new gTLD registries continue in 2017 as Donuts acquires '.irish'

The past couple of years have seen the emergence of an aftermarket for the purchase of new gTLD registries, with registry operators seeking to cut their losses following a disappointing number of registrations across the new gTLD name space overall. This trend has continued in 2017 with the acquisition of ‘.irish’ by Donuts, which oversees a portfolio of approximately 200 gTLDs. However, quite why the ‘.irish’ gTLD failed to take off is unclear.