According to a Press Release, Tucows Inc. (NYSE AMEX: TCX), announced today that it has acquired all the shares of EPAG Domainservices GmbH from QSC AG for approximately US$2.5 Million (€1.5 Million to purchase the shares and the settlement of a working capital adjustment of €0.25 Million) through an all-cash transaction.

EPAG, based in Bonn, Germany, is an ICANN-accredited registrar with over 400,000 domains under management and is notable for offering over 200 Top Level Domains (TLDs).

Tucows plans to continue serving EPAG customers and resellers via existing EPAG tools and will also integrate EPAG’s domain services into its own OpenSRS wholesale domain registration service.

“We believe combining the power of OpenSRS’ 12,000 active resellers in over 120 countries with EPAG’s ability to register such a broad range of TLDs will make OpenSRS unique in the industry,” said Tucows President & CEO Elliot Noss. “We expect that the deep expertise in registry integration we gain from EPAG will add invaluable bench-strength to our team as we prepare for ICANN’s roll-out of new TLDs.”

This acquisition further strengthens OpenSRS’ position as a leader in wholesale domain registration and extends its commitment to providing broad TLD coverage to its resellers. Currently OpenSRS manages 11 million domains across 33 TLDs. With this acquisition OpenSRS will now manage over 11.5 million domain names and by the end of the year OpenSRS resellers will have access to over 200 TLDs.

“We congratulate Tucows on their acquisition of EPAG and are confident that this change of ownership helps to accomplish the strategic goals of both QSC AG and EPAG”, said Ingo Hattendorf, responsible for the transaction at QSC AG.

The acquisition of EPAG adds hundreds of new German-language resellers to the OpenSRS channel, providing Tucows access to a market to which it had relatively little exposure previously. Dave Woroch, Tucows’ EVP Sales noted, “We are happy to welcome EPAG customers to OpenSRS and assure them they will continue to get the same great services and support they have come to expect from the EPAG team. Over time we look forward to providing additional features and services that can help EPAG customers grow their businesses.”

About QSC AG

QSC AG, Cologne, is a service provider for voice and data communication, as well as ICT services. Established in 1997, the company has been focusing on small and mid-size business customers. QSC AG is the first provider to operate an Open Access platform in Germany, which unites a wide range of broadband technologies to offer national and international site networking, including Managed Services. QSC AG additionally supplies its customers and distribution partners with a comprehensive product portfolio that can be modularly adapted to every need. QSC AG was the first provider in Germany to build its own Next Generation Network (NGN), and therefore enjoys long years of experience in connection with IP-based telephony solutions, in particular. QSC AG has been listed on the TecDAX index since 2004. The QSC AG group employs a workforce of some 1,300 people.

Tucows is the world’s third largest registrar, the addition of 400,000 domain names under management will help to further solidify that position.

Shares of Tucows have been creeping up in an otherwise lousy market from around $.77 to $.82 over the last week or so.