The Waltham, Massachusetts, company is backed by Highland Capital Partners and Summit Partners, which together hold an 84 percent stake.

NameMedia competes against rivals such as Marchex, Oversee.net, and Demand Media, which also are racing to corner the market on high-traffic domain names. Demand Media, founded by Richard Rosenblatt, former chief of MySpace parent Intermix Media, has raised more than $200 million in venture capital from backers including Oak Investment Partners, Goldman Sachs, and London’s 3i.

Credit Suisse Securities, the lead underwriter for NameMedia's IPO, will be joined by Jefferies & Company, Banc of America Securities, and RBC Capital Markets.

NameMedia operates an online marketplace for domain names owned by the company and third parties, about 2.25 million in all. The company likens its domain listing service on buydomains.com and afternic.com to the multiple listing service used in residential real estate.

 The company also generates advertising, subscription, and e-commerce revenue through a network of enthusiast web sites, including Photography.com, Tarot.com and Gardens.com, and sales-lead generating web sites like Cellularplans.com.

Kelly Conlin, who served as president and chief executive of International Data Group from March 1999 to September 2002, has been NameMedia’s chief executive since January 2006.

The company, formerly known as buydomains.com, plans to use proceeds of the IPO to repay a $105 million loan and for working capital, including possible acquisitions.

The company plans to trade under the symbol “NAME” on the Nasdaq National Market.

For the quarter ended September 30, NameMedia posted net income of $254,000 on revenue of $21 million. That compares to net income of $170,000 on revenue of $16.4 million in the prior year’s quarter. Online media accounted for about 54 percent of revenue in the most recent quarter with domain name sales and services accounting for the rest.

Lexington, Massachusetts-based Highland Capital, pre-IPO owner of 50.5 percent of NameMedia, has invested in a broad portfolio of Internet companies, including MapQuest, Lycos, and Ask Jeeves. Boston-based Summit Partners has invested in Webex, McAfee, and Safeboot, acquired in October by McAfee for $350 million.