Archive for the ‘domain auction’ Category
Mamma.com owner selling Mama.com.
I was originally a bit surprised to see mama.com in Moniker’s Spring Auction ending this week.
Then I realized the domain on auction is actually a typo of the once popular search engine Mamma.com — not the search engine itself. Well, sort of a typo, as I later found out.
I reached out to the founder of Mama.com owner Empresario, Omar Solis. As it turns out, his company bought the Mamma.com search engine in a deal completed in 2011. I asked him for the back story on the domain and he wrote a good explanation. Rather than chop it up, I’ve decided to publish it in full here….
The back-story:
Mamma.com was once a promising search engine from the “.com-bubble” era. It was founded in 1996 by a graduate student from Quebec Canada named Herman Tumurcuoglu. Eventually it got funded and taken public, ultimately merging with a desktop search company named Copernic in 2005. They also wanted to own the single ” m” version of their brand name and an Executive at the company acquired mama.com from a small us-based organization sometime around 2000-2001.
In 2009 we acquired the Mamma.com search and ad network assets from Copernic, which included the two domain names. Originally the deal was for $5 million, but we ended up paying $500,000 for all the assets. We took over the business in 2009, but did not take ownership until Sept 2011 when the sale was finalized with the assistance from a well-known American investor.
Although mamma.com didn’t make it to the big stage as a search engine, it still enjoyed a loyal user base from the US, Canada (especially French CA), France, and Asia. The Ad Network business was also profitable, generating several million dollars a year in revenue. Plus it came with the mama.com domain, which I knew had plenty of value in itself.
Present day:
Today we continue to operate the ad network and monetize the search engine traffic from mamma.com, which has proven to be a steady revenue business. In addition we operate a business incubator called Empresario.com, where we work with nimble entrepreneurs to create new value from our business platforms. Predominately working with online publishers, advertisers, and agencies that leverage our resources to advance their own business.
Our plan this year is to develop our incubator business further, so we decided to systematically dismantle and sell assets that did not directly support our current goals. After the mamma.com deal was finalized in Sept, we took a step back and evaluated the business from top to bottom. What we uncovered was a nice cache of Internet assets that no longer supported our objectives, but had tremendous value.
A good portion of these assets came in the form of premium domain names that we acquired over the years and have been sitting on parked pages. A while back we did well in domain parking but after 2009 our revenue channels became more diverse and parking was overlooked. In regards to selling domains, we have always entertained offers and have sold many domain names over the years, but have never made it a full-blown effort like we are doing now.
Coincidentally, at the end of 2011 we started receiving serious 6-figure offers for mama.com, mostly interest from China and Japan where our largest offers have originated. As we drilled further into the analysis, we figured out that all the type-in users that went to mama.com, were looking for “female/maternal” topics and not a search engine. Separating and selling mama.com from mamma.com started making sense.
Also the sale includes the Twitter handle @mama, which will give this deal a unique twist. I have have not heard of many domain sales that also included the related Twitter handle, which these days is an excellent value-add.
Currently we are focused on the mama.com sale, but we have also put up a sample of 36 premium domain names from our portfolio that are currently available for sale via our site. In the next few weeks will place the rest of our portfolio on Sedo & Snapnames, except for a few exclusives that will only be offered on our website.
Hopefully mama.com will sell via Moniker’s auction this week, but regardless we will continue to push the sale this year, as we are eager to focus on our core business.
You can reach Solis here.
© DomainNameWire.com 2011.
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Houses.co.uk leads premium domain name auction.
Moniker‘s “make up” auction from last week’s Barcelona conference has found a home for five more domains on top of the multi-million dollar sale of Data.com to Salesforce.com. Data.com was pulled from the auction after Salesforce.com made a significant offer on the domain name.
The sales included:
Houses.co.uk $50,870
Gado.com $3,000
SEMexpert.com $600
SEOagencies.com $900
Pilsners.co.uk $300
It’s worth noting that Houses.co.uk started with no reserve, which helped attract 19 bidders.
Social.com received a $2.5 million dollar bid but failed to meet its reserve. Here are some other domains that failed to meet the reserve:
WorldClock.com $41,000
CustomCars.com $15,000
Premed.com $11,001
Telefono.es $10,001
Duffelbag.com $5500
BodySculpting.com $5500
HardAbs.com $1,250
WorldClock.com, Premed.com, and BodySculpting.com were part of my “picks” for the auction. There was one bidder for WorldClock.com but he kept bidding the price up to find the reserve. The domain name is owned by CNN and has a reserve of up to $50,000.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see a lot of action on some of these domains over the next few weeks.
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Some picks — including some big ones — for Wednesday’s auction.
Moniker’s premium domain name auction, which was moved to an online-only event after technical problems in Barcelona last week, ends on Wednesday at 3:15 PM ET.
As with recent auctions, I think some of the activity will take place outside the auction.
We’ve already seen the monster sale of Data.com to Salesforce.com before the auction even started. All we know for sure is that the sales price was well above the $1.5 million reserve. But given the buyer and his astute knowledge of generic domain names, I suspect it was substantially higher.
So here are my picks, with the caveat that some of the big reserve domains may not hit their reserves — but could see some action after the auction.
Premed.com – reserve is under $25k. Huge market for educational products, test prep, as well as community forums.
BodySculpting.com – certainly worth $5k, although the reserve may be higher.
Social.com – Again, at $5M this may be a stretch. But given the interest in this market I think someone can pay a significant amount and put this domain to good use.
HorseRacing.com – OK, so it has a really lofty reserve. But a huge market.
WorldClock.com – Reserve is $25k-$50k, but I think this is interesting considering the owner: CNN.
Languages.com – Fantastic name for language education. Is it as good as ForeignLanguage.com? Not sure. Reserve is under $1 million.
MuchoDinero.com – I just like this one because I’ve used the term so many times. Reserve is $10k-$25k.
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Data.com to highlight upcoming live domain name auction in Barcelona, Spain.
Publicly traded media company UBM plc has added its Data.com domain name to Moniker‘s upcoming live domain name auction in Barcelona. The reserve price is between $1 million and $5 million.
This is a fantastic domain name, especially with the “Big Data” trend in enterprise business.
Although the domain names are only loosely related, another domain with “data” in it is one of the most expensive ever sold: DataRecovery.com, which sold for $1.7 million in 2008.
The live auction will take place at the Pullman Barcelona Skipper Hotel’s Grand Ballroom at 4 p.m. Barcelona time during DOMAINfest Barcelona.
The auction features about 60 domain names, with reserve ranges from “no reserve” to over $5 million. Some of the key domain names include Social.com, Airports.com, and HorseRacing.com.
Pre-bidding for the auction has already started on the Snapnames platform.
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New domain name auction platform launches.
DomainConsultant.com has launched BoxCar.com, a new domain name auction site.
The service is very different from typical marketplaces such as Afternic and Sedo. It focuses on auctions only and you can list lots instead of just single domains. It’s also highly flexible, allowing you to set your own bid increments, buy-it-now option, reserve prices, etc.
BoxCar.com also shuns the typical commission-based fee structure by charging a simple flat fee of $5 per domain name (an introductory price). By charging a flat, up-front fee I suspect the inventory will be void of junk listings.
Other features include:
-Add Facebook or Twitter, Flash or You Tube video to your auction.
-Escrow.com and PayPal integrated
-Boxcar.com/USERNAME profile page (add your Twitter, FB, site, etc.)
-Beta and Preview periods
-RSS feed for all your auctions
-Dynamic Flash widget- updated and embeddable
-Buyers and Sellers Kits
Among the introductory names already on auction are MindGames.com, LegalRecords.com, and SWD.com.
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Digital.com goes up for sale.
Technology giant HP is offering the domain name Digital.com for sale, but it’s going to cost you.
The domain name has been listed in Moniker‘s upcoming live domain name auction taking place in Prague October 6. Reserve price: somewhere between $1 million and $5 million.
HP got the domain name when it acquired Compaq.
Moniker will auction off 80 other domain names during its DOMAINfest conference live domain name auction.
Among the domains are “me too” domains. I call them “me too” because they obviously hope to capitalize on recent big dollar sales.
But in this case the me too domains are good ones. It’s not like they’re trying to sell MyGunsOnline.com because Guns.com sold for $800,000 earlier this year. Instead, it’s Gun.com. Also on the block is SlotMachine.com, trying to capitalize on the $5.5 million sale of Slots.com.
Gun.com has a $750k-$1M reserve, and SlotMachine.com is above $1M. These seem lofty, but you never know.
IdeaLab is also getting in on the action, offering Tools.com for somewhere over $1M.
Here are some of the domains in the auction that I like within the stated reserve range:
ETFs.com $50k-$100k
LiveStock.com $10k-$25k
Megan.com $25k-$50k
PackandShip.com $2.5k-$5k
Retailer.com $25k-$50k – would be good for a magazine or retailers’ consortium
ShortSale.com $50k-$100k – I’d love to see a site with all of the listed house short sales in the area
Shout.com $250k-$500k – I like this at the lower end of the range
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German domain conference and auction takes place this week.
Germany’s only dedicated domain name conference, DomainvermarkterForum, will take place this Thursday and Friday in Munich. The event is at the five-star Hotel Sofitel Bayerpost. Gold sponsors for the event include PartnerGate and, as you might guess given its German headquarters, Sedo.
Sessions include: advantages of your own DENIC membership, speed networking, info on VeriSign Internet Profile Service, and a presentation on The Water School.
There will also be an auction Friday afternoon conducted with Moniker and Snapnames. Here are some of the domains in the auction along with their English translation, according to the show organizers:
Kameras.de Cameras
LeihWagen.de Rental Car
Militär.de Military
Lüfter.com Fan
DebitKarten.com Debit Card
Speisen.de Food
Information about the auction is available here.
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Generic domain name for domain industry goes on the block Tuesday.
DomainConsultant.com’s auction of DomainName.com is taking place on Tuesday, August 31.
This isn’t just an auction for the domain name — it includes an ICANN accredited registrar with an active customer base and about 8,000 domain registrations. That’s not a huge number, but if you take a look at what has been done with DomainName.com to date, it appears there’s a lot of upside.
The package will only sell to someone with deep pockets, as the starting bid and reserve is $1 million. But financing is available with 20% down. According to DomainConsultant.com, the site gets 2,000-3,000 unique visitors a day.
A prospectus including current revenue, maintenance requirements, support, etc. is available for qualified bidders by emailing mike (at) domainconsultant.com.
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Domain names will be auctioned off at TRAFFIC in October if court approves.
Assuming court approval, Rick Latona has scored a coup by getting rights to auction off the remaining domain names owned by John Zuccarini to satisfy a court judgment and U.S. tax lien.
After losing a cybersquatting case to Office Depot, Zuccarini’s domain names were handed to a receiver. That receiver has had his share of challenges, including letting some of the domain names expire. But now the receiver is recommending the remaining domain names be auctioned off at TRAFFIC in Florida this October.
From the proposed order (pdf):
After researching the industry, consulting with Zuccarini, and interviewing multiple domain name auction houses, the Receiver developed an auction strategy to maximize the proceeds from the sale of the Domain Holdings. (Blacksburg Decl. 5- 9.) Specifically, the Receiver determined that the most prominent domain auction in the upcoming twenty-four months is the auction at the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Domain Conference & Expo, in Miami, Florida, on October 19, 2010, to be held in conjunction with Latona’s Brokerage & Auction House (hereinafter, the “Auctioneer”). (Id. 6.) T.R.A.F.F.I.C. is considered to be the domain industry’s premier conference, attracting attendees that control over 20 million domain names with 50 million daily unique visitors. (Id. 7.) Latona’s Brokerage & Auction House is considered to be one of the most prominent auction houses for valuable domain names, and is the exclusive domain name auction company for the 2010 T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Domain Conference & Expo. (Id. 8.) This auction will allow both live bidding and worldwide Internet-based bidding.
A list of the domain names is not currently available, but it will be interesting to see what’s on the list. Many of Zuccarini’s domain names were typos, and the court has shown concern before that auctioning off typos may be problematic. In 2007, the court wrote:
The Court is concerned, however, with DS Holdings’ ultimate plan to auction off the domain names at issue. As Zuccarini points out, many of the domain names at issue are deliberate misspellings and variations of legitimate domain names, both generic and proprietary. Such names may have legitimate purposes, as counsel argued at the hearing, but they may also be used to misdirect consumers, as apparently Zuccarini himself did.
However, many of the domain names that expired and were auctioned at NameJet were generic typos.
Hat tip: John Berryhill.
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Extended auction fails to live up to success of live auction.
Last week DOMAINfest had a successful live domain name auction. Unfortunately, the extended auction didn’t perform too well.
Only 8 out of 797 domain names sold, or a sell through rate of only 1%.
It’s disappointing, but I’m not terribly surprised. I only came up with five domain names to mention in my preview post a couple days ago. (Mind you, none of the five I chose sold. But it goes to show that it wasn’t easy finding “sure things” in the auction at the reserve prices).
Another anomaly: only two of the domains that sold were .com.
Here are the sales:
vhs.com $17650
relationship.net $12950
dedicated.net $8830
earnextramoney.org $525
accenttables.co.uk 300
associatesdegree.co.uk $1066
energyteas.com 425
flannelshirts.co.uk 300
Relationship.net and Dedicated.net were peculiar. They each received one bid and fairly early on. I’d also say the prices are rather high for this quality of .net. I can see how the domains are related though.
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