Gandi
Gandi SAS Logo
Type of site
Société par actions simplifiée
Founded1999 (1999)
Headquarters
Paris
,
France
Area servedWorldwide
OwnerTotal Webhosting Solutions[1][2]
Founder(s)Pierre Beyssac
Laurent Chemla
Valentin Lacambre
Key peopleStephan Ramoin (President)
ServicesDomain name registration
Web hosting
Blog hosting service
Email hosting
Revenue€37 million (2018)[3]
URLwww.gandi.net

Gandi SAS (Gestion et Attribution des Noms de Domaine sur Internet – "Management and Allocation of Domain Names on the Internet") is a French company providing domain name registration, web hosting, and related services. The company's main office is in Paris.[4]

History

Gandi was founded as a domain registrar in April 2000 by Valentin Lacambre, Laurent Chemla, Pierre Beyssac and David Nahmias.[4]

In 2005 following internal struggles in management,[5] ownership and management of Gandi was sold to a team led by Stephan Ramoin (formerly of MultiMania/Lycos),[6] and investors Joe White, Eirik Pettersen (co-founders of the online website building service Moonfruit), and Warren Stephens.[7]

In 2008, Gandi launched a Xen-based VPS cloud hosting service, based on a system of "shares" and scalable resources that can be adjusted in real time.[8]

In 2010 the company created a subsidiary in the US, opening a data center in downtown Baltimore, Phoenix, Arizona and business offices in San Francisco, California, as well as creating a customer support center in the US, which until then had been exclusively operated out of Paris, France at Place de la Nation.

In late 2011, Gandi.net was the 25th largest registrar in terms of the number of domains registered.[9]

On 31 July 2014, Amazon Web Services partnered with Gandi and announced the ability to register domains directly through their Route 53 Service.[10][11]

On 28 February 2019, Gandi CEO Stephan Ramoin announced that private equity firm Montefiore Investment had acquired the company.[3]

In February 2023, Gandi was acquired by Total Webhosting Solutions, forming a new brand, Your.Online.[12][13] In June, the company announced drastic price increases, including a new monthly fee for mailboxes previously included for free.[14]

Service

Domain registrar

Gandi is mostly known as a domain name registrar.[15]

Email services

Gandi is also known for its "Gandi mail" offering, which includes some productivity software[16] and allows to use open source software Roundcube as webmail interface.[17]

Business model

Gandi does not advertise,[18] relying primarily on "word of mouth" recommendations from existing customers.

Until 2019, the company didn't distribute profits nor take debts, but reinvested all its margins in the business.[3]

The company has a program to provide funds and/or promotion to projects and organizations that meet its criteria of "concrete", "open", and "alternative".[19] It uses and advocates for open-source software,[20] and since September 2010 has supported Creative Commons, providing them with free domain registrations and renewals, as well as VPS services.[21]

Other projects that Gandi supports include (but not limited to) the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Students for Free Culture, The Spamhaus Project, Debian, Let's Encrypt, Ubuntu, GNOME, FreeBSD, Dotclear, Mageia, Paris Web, World Wide Fund for Nature, Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, VideoLAN, Adie, Canard PC, International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), Demotix, GoodPlanet, Jamendo, In Libro Veritas, Arrêt sur Images le retour, Software Freedom Conservancy, Geeklist, FlISoL, Wikiotics, and FluxBB.[19][22]

References

  1. ↑ online-pereputye (2023-02-10). "Gandi & TWS Join Forces to Form Your.Online". Your.Online. Retrieved 2023-02-27. Gandi SAS ("Gandi") and Total Webhosting Solutions B.V. ("TWS"), today announced their merger and the creation of Your.Online: a leading European online services platform supporting businesses of all sizes in realizing and scaling their online ambitions.
  2. ↑ "McDermott Will & Emery Advised Montefiore Investment on the Sale of its Shares in Gandi to Total Webhosting Solutions". McDermott Will & Emery. Retrieved 2023-02-27. McDermott Will & Emery advised Montefiore Investment, a leading fund for mid-cap companies, in the sale of its stake in Gandi, a French domain name registration, web hosting, email and SSL certificate provider, to the pan-European company Total Webhosting Solutions (TWS).
  3. 1 2 3 "#FutureofGandi: The adventure continues - Gandi News".
  4. 1 2 "Domain names and VPS Cloud hosting – Who is Gandi?". Gandi. Retrieved 2014-02-08.
  5. ↑ Ramoin, Stephan (16 February 2006). "The "How" after the "Why", Part I". Gandi Bar. Gandi. Retrieved 26 April 2016. It's the end of 2004 and I receive a telephone call from Laurent Chemla. He tells me that the shareholders, aware of their differences and therefore their incapacity to make Gandi evolve, have taken the decision to sell.
  6. ↑ "Portrait of Stephan Ramoin, President of Gandi SAS". Gandi. Retrieved 2014-02-08.
  7. ↑ Wendy. "Who is Gandi and why should I care?". www.gandibar.net. Retrieved 2016-01-27.
  8. ↑ "Why choose Gandi for your hosting service? – Power on demand". Gandi. Retrieved 2014-02-08.
  9. ↑ "Largest ICANN Registrars". webhosting.info. Archived from the original on 2014-02-09. Retrieved 2014-02-08.
  10. ↑ "Amazon Route 53 Announces Domain Name Registration, Geo Routing, and Lower Pricing". Amazon Web Services, Inc. Retrieved 2020-11-17.
  11. ↑ "Registering Domain Names Using Amazon Route 53 – Amazon Route 53". docs.aws.amazon.com. Retrieved 2016-01-27.
  12. ↑ online-pereputye (2023-02-10). "Gandi & TWS Join Forces to Form Your.Online". Your.Online. Retrieved 2023-02-27. Gandi SAS ("Gandi") and Total Webhosting Solutions B.V. ("TWS"), today announced their merger and the creation of Your.Online: a leading European online services platform supporting businesses of all sizes in realizing and scaling their online ambitions.
  13. ↑ "McDermott Will & Emery Advised Montefiore Investment on the Sale of its Shares in Gandi to Total Webhosting Solutions". McDermott Will & Emery. Retrieved 2023-02-27. McDermott Will & Emery advised Montefiore Investment, a leading fund for mid-cap companies, in the sale of its stake in Gandi, a French domain name registration, web hosting, email and SSL certificate provider, to the pan-European company Total Webhosting Solutions (TWS).
  14. ↑ "FAQ – New Mailbox service and management of your current mailboxes".
  15. ↑ "Montefiore Investment acquires domain name registrar Gandi". 2019-03-01. Retrieved 2020-04-18.
  16. ↑ Guénaël Pépin (2017-01-24). "Gandi revoit son webmail et lui ajoute un calendrier" (in French).
  17. ↑ "Introducing the new Gandi Mail". Gandi News. August 2017. Retrieved 2020-04-18.
  18. ↑ Ryan (2010-09-07). "Customer Support at Gandi: Evolution and Future". Gandi. Retrieved 2014-02-08.
  19. 1 2 "Gandi supports alternative projects". Gandi. Retrieved 2014-02-08.
  20. ↑ "Gandi GitHub repository". Retrieved 2014-02-08.
  21. ↑ Kinkade, Nathan (2010-09-13). "Gandi.net supports CC". Archived from the original on 2010-09-17.
  22. ↑ "Episode 0x3A: FOSDEM 2013: FOSS Code Goes In And Never Comes Out". Software Freedom Conservancy. 2013-04-03. Time index ~1:00:00. Retrieved 2014-02-08.
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