Webcentral relaunches Melbourne IT brand through New Domain Services acquisition

ASX-listed hosting services firm Webcentral has relaunched the Melbourne IT brand through its acquisition of Melbourne-based domain email and webhosting services business New Domain Services for $5 million.

Webcentral was previously known as Melbourne IT prior to 2018, when the company was renamed to "Arq Group" in a bid to shake off its legacy web hosting and domain name image. After selling off its enterprise business (which retained the Arq Group name, and is now a subsidiary of NCS Group) in 2020, the company was renamed Webcentral and was later acquired by 5G Networks in the same year.

The Melbourne IT brand remains in operation within Webcentral, with New Domain Services and its corporate domain services offering to be folded into the brand as part of a brand relaunch.

New Domain Services's Jonathan Horne joins Webcentral as the new Melbourne IT's chief executive.

“I am excited to join Webcentral to relaunch and drive the expansion of Melbourne IT into the corporate domains services market and look forward to growing the business," Horne said.

"I have admired the brand power of Melbourne IT for many years with its rich history as the originator of domains in Australia. Corporate domain services is a large sector and Australia has been under serviced for a number of years.”

Webcentral said Horne has provided consulting services to Webcentral since its acquisition by 5G Networks, working with the company on a number of new products, including Webcentral’s Australian domain launch in 2022.

Apart from New Domain, which was founded in 2013, Horne also founded other hosting businesses, including Domain IP in 2014, Hosting Australia in 2016 and Cyber Aware in 2017.

Webcentral managing director Joe Demase said, “The corporate domains services market is underserviced in Australia and the relaunch of Melbourne IT will allow Webcentral to target these important large corporate customers with innovative products and services here in Australia and Internationally."

Melbourne IT is a corporate domains services provider with a customer base consisting of large and medium sized corporate entities. In 2013, the company sold its Digital Brand Services business to CSC Group for $152.5 million.