Founder will retain large stake in company.

Namecheap is about to have a new majority owner.

The Wall Street Journal reported this morning that CVC Capital Partners has come to terms to buy a majority stake in the company. It will value the registrar and hosting company at $1.5 billion, including debt.

Namecheap founder Richard Kirkendall will retain a large stake in the company.

The company generated revenues of approximately $400 million in last year.

Namecheap is the second-largest domain name registrar. As of the latest published data, it had 11.5 million .com domains registered in May. This is on top of many millions of domains registered in other extensions.

The company is known for cheap domains, and also for its vocal founder. Kirkendall has frequently sparred with GoDaddy, which holds the title of the largest domain name registrar.

In addition to Namecheap, the company operates Spaceship, a domain registrar and sales platform that is courting domain name investors.