Future Media Architects was founded by Thunayan Khalid Al-Ghanim, known by his internet alias "elequa", in 2002. Born in 1970 in London, Al-Ghanim "comes from a respected Kuwaiti family that has international business interests".[1]
By mid-2003, Future Media Architects had "amassed more than 12,000 quality domains", including media.com, multimedia.com, fm.com, mp3.tv, dj.net, and oxide.com. The company purchased i.net, a major ICANN-approved internet registry, to process and manage its portfolio of domain names purchases.[1]
By 2011, Future Media Architects held over 120,000 domain names, though Al-Ghanim said, "I haven't been an active buyer lately."[2]
In 2016, Future Media Architects reversed a longstanding policy not to sell domain names,[1] and began offloading parts of its domain portfolio. Notably, it sold a number of four-letter domain names in the Chinese market.[3] In 2017, Future Media Architects listed almost 10,000 domain names for sale on the Uniregistry market.[4] Between 2014 and 2018, Future Media Architects's domain name sales were estimated at $24M.[5]
In March 2019, after "a dispute that lasted four years", Al-Ghanim was removed as an officer of Future Media Architects. The company is now under control of his sister, Shareefah Khalid Al-Ghanim. "According to court documents, Mrs. Alghanim asserted that her brother mismanaged the company, and indulged in a variety of vices impeding his judgement when making decisions about Future Media Architects. The two siblings were equal partners in the company with a 50% stake each."[6][7]
