MedAscend buys dot-md in multimillion-dollar deal

December 13, 2000

MedAscend, a healthcare software firm based in Atlanta, has purchased the rights to manage the Internet domain .md (dot-md) and has changed its name to dotMD. The complicated deal included negotiating with the country of Moldova and acquiring Domain Name Trust, a company that had previously purchased the rights to sell Internet addresses on the dot-md domain from Moldova. dotMD has also settled a lawsuit brought by a handful of companies that had already been given the rights to sell dot-md addresses. As part of the deal with Moldova, dotMD has offered the government of Moldova a 5% equity stake in the company and an undisclosed royalty rate for all dot-md registrations.