Archive for the ‘Moniker’ Category
Moniker auction nets close to $20,000 in sales.
The Moniker Premium Spring Auction at SnapNames just concluded. Here are the (unofficial) results:
drivinggloves.com 6450 – this is a recently developed site. Auction included Facebook page (with 2,000+ likes) and Twitter handle.
florists.info 3050 – good keyword, but not a bad price given how marketplace for secondary TLDs like this will change in coming years.
loaninterestrates.com 2000
obese.net 1650 – 5 bidders duked it out for this one. It was the last auction to close due to extensions.
scubadivinglessons.com 1267
bearings.net 770
alumn.com 590 – not a very common spelling of the term
njlawfirms.com 575
grilled.net 500
32a.com 470
wyvn.com 300
upcbarcodes.com 300
overnightpriority.com 300 – not to be confused with Fedex’s Priority Overnight
joggingshorts.com 300 – definitely falls under the “niche” category
attempt.net 300
© DomainNameWire.com 2011.
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Related posts:
- Moniker Spring auction begins, plus sites get new logos
- Moniker Trims Silent Auction List for TRAFFIC Auction
- Moniker Auction Results: 30 .Us Domain Name Sell
Company says Moniker didn’t appropriately notify it of expiring domain names.
[Update: see Moniker Oversee.net comment below] A large client of domain name registrar Moniker has sued the company and parent company Oversee.net over alleged shenanigans with expired domain names.
Mainstream Advertising, Inc. filed the suit (pdf) claiming breach of contract, conversion, unjust enrichment, and unfair competition.
The company started using Moniker in 2005 and claims that it has registered, hosted and/or maintained
approximately 120,000 domain names through Moniker’s registration and hosting services.
Mainstream says that Moniker did not notify it appropriately about expiring domain names. Moniker and Oversee.net companies allegedly took over the domain names after they expired.
According to the suit:
Defendants engaged in practices that increased the likelihood that these domain names would lapse and fall outside the control and ownership of Mainstream. These practices included, but are not limited to, failing to provide appropriate expiration notices to Mainstream regarding these various domain names.
Moniker sends weekly notices to clients of expiring domains that are not set to auto-renew starting 75 days before the domains expire and continuing 21 days after the domains expire, according to the suit.
But Mainstream claims:
Upon information and belief, the weekly email notices regarding expiration which were required to be sent during the 99-day (sic) period were either never sent, or transmitted in a deliberate and capricious manner so that they would be blocked by Mainstream’s e-mail computer systems, including through their reasonable and standard spam filters.
Mainstream attached Moniker’s Domain Name Deletion and Auto-Renew Policy as an exhibit in the suit. I had never read this agreement, but interestingly it states that the registrant should take action to whitelist Moniker’s email addresses to make sure it receives expiration notices.
Many of the domain names ended up with Moniker and Oversee.net’s companies after the domains expired, mainstream says.
Mainstream became aware of this in 2009 and actually agreed to pay $132,965 to recover 3,652 domain names that it had let expire. That amount was primarily for four years of renewal per domain name at $7.75 each. You can see a partial list of the 3,652 domains here.
The company says it paid the amount but the domain names were never returned to it. Oversee.net said otherwise in a comment released to Domain Name Wire:
We are aware of the alleged claims brought by Mainstream Advertising and believe that they are wholly without merit. For example, if Mainstream and its attorneys were to log into their Moniker account, they would see that the 3,652 domains which they allege were never delivered to them were, in fact, delivered to them in 2009 and remain in their account to this day.
Mainstream alleges that the defendants have converted about 83,000 domain names it previously owned.
On its web site, Mainstream Advertising describes itself as “an innovative provider of results-based interactive online marketing services to advertisers and agencies. Our extensive advertising network consists of inventory that we purchase from Web Traffic, Search Engine Optimization, PPC campaigns and email publishers.” It owns SearchABC.com.
Its LinkedIn profile shows 20 employees.
The complaint was filed in U.S. District Court in Southern District of Florida.
© DomainNameWire.com 2011.
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Related posts:
- Verizon Sues DirectNIC for Parking Expired Domain Names
- Transamerica Sues Moniker Over Trademarked Domain Names
- Expired Domain Rule Changes Closer to Reality
Judge again to decide on motion to dismiss some of Cahn’s claims against his former employer.
Monte Cahn has responded (pdf) to Oversee.net’s Motion to Dismiss certain claims in his case against his former employer.
Cahn’s lawyers write:
“As this is Oversee’s second Motion to Dismiss, Oversee has defaulted to boilerplate, insubstantial objections to Cahn’s claims.”
The judge struck many of Cahn’s claims in Oversee.net’s previous motion to dismiss. Oversee.net says the case is simply a breach of contract case.
There’s not much new in Cahn’s response, as it mostly reiterates what he alleged in the latest amended complaint against Oversee. In addition to breach of contract, Cahn claims that Oversee.net committed fraud when it convinced him to join the company when it acquired Moniker. He also alleges conversion of some of his personal domain names.
For the fraud claim, the lawyers state:
“…he is suing Oversee because Defendants’ fraudulent representation caused Cahn to lose millions of dollars in lost opportunities, including alternative employment and investment opportunities with third parties.”
© DomainNameWire.com 2011.
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Related posts:
- Judge Dismisses Many of Monte Cahn’s Claims Against Oversee.net
- Oversee.net Blasts Monte Cahn’s Amended Lawsuit
- Oversee.net Asks Court to Dismiss Monte Cahn’s Claims
Company to hold month long auction with just 50 domains.
Moniker is holding a premium domain name auction starting next month that will be limited to 50 top domains.
The auction will run for a full month beginning October 1820. Domain submissions are due by October 13.
The company is looking for good 1-2 word generic domain names or 1-4 character domains.
If Moniker does this right I think it could be a good opportunity for sellers. The company has had a solid year selling premium domain names that were originally listed in auctions. By focusing on just 50 domain names and letting them get exposure for a full month, it’s possible we’ll see some decent activity both in and out of the auction.
Of course the key ingredient will be good domains at good prices.
© DomainNameWire.com 2011.
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Related posts:
- My Sales Results from One Year of Go Daddy Premium Listings
- Moniker: Online Archive and Last Call for Auction Submissions
- Moniker Limits Submissions for April Domain Name Auction
Oversee.net continues to say lawsuit with Monte Cahn is merely about contract claims.
Oversee.net has filed a motion to dismiss (pdf) numerous claims in Monte Cahn’s second amended lawsuit.
The motion to dismiss starts out with this telling line:
“Apparently, the third time is not the charm.”
The second amended lawsuit was the third complaint brought by Cahn.
Oversee.net claims Cahn’s latest complaint is “fundamentally flawed”. It asks the court to dismiss claims of fraud or conversion and let the case proceed “as a matter rooted in contract law”.
The motion to dismiss states:
“Although Cahn has now abandoned some of his theories, he still seeks to turn a breach of contract claim into a claim for fraud, and he still seeks to plead conversion claims that fail as a matter of law”.
The company claims that Cahn has tried to revive two of the claims that the court dismissed previously.
“In an effort to conceal the lack of change, Cahn reformats some of his allegations and repeatedly adds to his factual allegations speculative contentions about the defendants’ states of mind…”
Oversee.net also claims that Cahn has added “several rhetorical flourishes about the supposed importance to Oversee of retaining Chan post-merger”.
© DomainNameWire.com 2011.
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Related posts:
- Oversee.net Asks Court to Dismiss Monte Cahn’s Claims
- Judge Dismisses Many of Monte Cahn’s Claims Against Oversee.net
- Monte Cahn Updates Lawsuit Against Oversee.net with New Details
Moniker auction attracting lots of bids with one more day left.
28 domain names in Moniker’s DOMAINfest Meet-Up NYC auction have received bids with still one day to go, although only 14 domain names have met their reserves.
The auction is taking place on Snapnames.
The top domain to meet its reserve so far is Teeb.com at $5,250 with 4 bidders.
Hardcore.com has a bid of $125,000 but it has a reserve of up to $250,000.
Some of the domains that have met their reserves and are still under $500 are AirportSecurityScanners.com, Qse.net, and SundayEvenings.com.
For those with deeper pockets, five domain names are listed at over $1 million: Americans.com, Hot.com, End.com, SouthAfrica.com, and TopMovies.com
© DomainNameWire.com 2011.
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Related posts:
- 72% of .TV Domains in Auction Have Bids
- SnapNames Health and Pharma Auction Has Solid Bids
- Moniker Prague auction Ends Wednesday, Monthly Auction Kicks Off
Cahn claims company deliberately shifted Moniker‘s revenue to other Oversee.net entities.
Monte Cahn has filed an amended complaint (pdf) against Oversee.net after a judge tossed out many of his original claims against his former employer.
The amended complaint includes new details regarding how Oversee.net allegedly affected Moniker’s revenues after the acquisition.
First, Cahn explains that the acquisition violated Oversee.net’s advertising agreement with Google because of Moniker’s TrafficClub service. This forced Oversee.net to shut down TrafficClub upon the acquisition.
Second, Cahn claims that Moniker was Oversee.net subsidiary SnapName’s second best performing registrar at the time or the acquisition. Moniker received 70% or 80% of revenue Snapnames made selling domains from Moniker, or about $700,000 annually, according to the complaint.
But when Network Solutions ended its agreement with SnapNames, Cahn says Oversee.net used the Moniker revenue share payments to obscure the revenue impact:
In order to disguise and prevent the Oversee Board and others from recognizing the disastrous effect of the departure of Network Solutions, after the merger, Oversee improperly diverted Moniker’s registrar revenue to SnapNames, thereby artificially deflating Moniker’s EBITDA.
Cahn still claims Fraud in addition to breach of contract claims.
© DomainNameWire.com 2011.
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Related posts:
- Monte Cahn: Acquisition of Moniker Violated Google Contract
- Monte Cahn Adds Allegations to Complaint Against Oversee.net
- Oversee.net Asks Court to Dismiss Monte Cahn’s Claims
Financial report mentions sale of “portfolio” of domains for $4.5 million.
We basically already knew that Salesforce.com paid $4.5 million for the domain name Data.com. But if you’re looking for a little bit more proof of the transaction price, you’ll find it in the seller’s 2011 first half financial report.
On page 35 of UBM Plc’s report it states:
On 2 June 2011, the Group sold a portfolio of domain names for total consideration of $4.5m (£2.8m). Profit after directly attributable costs of £2.5m was recognised on disposal.
The sale of Data.com was completed in the first week of June.
I find it interesting that the company refers to this as a “portfolio of domain names”, which means that more than just Data.com changed hands. But any other domains sold have negligible value compared to Data.com.
According to Fusible.com, Salesforce was also the $2.6 million buyer of Social.com, which was listed at the same Moniker auction. I’m surprised about this given what I had heard about the buyer. But that would mean the company spent $7.1 million on domains brokered by Moniker.
© DomainNameWire.com 2011.
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Related posts:
- Breaking: Salesforce.com Buys Data.com Domain Name
- Latest Moniker Auction Tops $7.2 Million in Sales, Data.com Sales Price Around $4.5 Million
- $2.6 Million Social.com Sale Could Make Moniker Auction a Big One
More proof that providing whois proxy services isn’t free.
Remember when a Miami blog suggested that Moniker provided child porn?
Now Moniker is named in another porn lawsuit (pdf), and it appears the lawyers filing the case are confused. But it’s another example of why I say providing whois privacy isn’t free.
Adult movie producer Fraserside, a division of publicly traded company Private Media Group Inc., sued “Moniker Privacy Services, dba DrTuber.com” for copyright infringement. DrTuber.com is one of the web’s most visited web sites; Alexa ranks it #409.
Fraserside points to a number of its videos that are hosted on the explicit web site.
Typically you’ll see a whois proxy service such as Moniker named in a lawsuit so that the service will reveal the owner. But the way the complaint is written, it appears Fraserside’s lawyers think that Moniker Privacy Services is running DrTuber.com.
Even if the plaintiff drops Moniker once it understands the relationship, it will cost Moniker to respond…another example of the costs of providing a whois proxy service.
© DomainNameWire.com 2011.
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Related posts:
- Doh! Miami Blog Confused by Moniker Privacy Services, Connects it to Child Porn
- Wikileaks Could Put More Pressure on Whois Privacy Services
- Providing Whois Privacy Isn’t Free
Moniker founder says Oversee.net contract with Google violated in Moniker acquisition.
Monte Cahn has filed a response (pdf) to Oversee.net’s motion to dismiss certain claims he brought against his former employer.
One of the more interesting claims in his response relates to the Moniker acquisition from Seevast and how it may have violated Oversee.net’s contract with ad provider Google:
Additionally, since filing the First Amended Complaint, it has come to our attention that there was a contract in place between Google and Oversee during the time Oversee was negotiating with Seevast and Cahn, which Defendants had knowledge of, and which directly effected Cahn’s performance under the MIP. We are of the understanding and belief that the acquisition of Moniker was in direct violation of the Google contract, and therefore Cahn never even had the ability to earn the $13 million bonus.
Oversee.net’s contract with Google is for domain name parking. This could be related to Moniker’s TrafficClub monetization service. Oversee.net shut down this service after the acquisition and migrated customers to DomainSponsor instead. Although TrafficClub was a “split testing” service for domain parking, it was down to basically one parking provider at the time of acquisition.
© DomainNameWire.com 2011.
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Related posts:
- Monte Cahn Sues Oversee.net Over $13 Million Incentive Plan [Updated]
- Oversee.net Asks Court to Dismiss Monte Cahn’s Claims
- Monte Cahn Adds Allegations to Complaint Against Oversee.net
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