Comments on: Oversee.net To Acquire SnapNames

By: Pressure is on Oversee.net | Elliot's Blog

Pressure is on Oversee.net | Elliot's Blog — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 20:29:50 +0000

[...] purchased Snapnames, which was the leading platform to purchase expired and deleting domain names. They had many [...]

By: Domain Name Wire » News » Oversee.net Receives $150M Investment from Oak Hill Capital Partners - The Domain Industry's News Source

Tue, 15 Jan 2008 15:11:23 +0000

[...] 2007, the company scored a $60M line of credit from Bank of America. This was partially used to purchase SnapNames this past summer. Earlier this month, Oversee.net announced that it purchased domain registrar [...]

By: Adam

Adam — Sun, 03 Jun 2007 23:21:16 +0000

As I am aware it is illegal in most states for the auction house or owners to bid on the inventory they are charged to sell. It’s called shilling.

This is actually good news for anyone involved as it eliminates oversee as a competitor in bidding.

By: Domainer's Gazette

Domainer's Gazette — Sat, 02 Jun 2007 11:07:15 +0000

another interesting angle to consider is this:

what type of traffic data will Oversee.net now have access to, in regards to individual domains auctioning each day? Sedo and TDNAM are kind enough to provide rough estimates to us prior to auction, but snapnames shares nothing. If Oversee is granted access to this treasure trove of data, it might be more of a concern than cherry-picking, as they’ll be able to mine ‘lower-hanging-fruit’ domains, and outbid competitors to acquire (since they’ll know how many visitors land on those domains each day – and what rate typically click as well)

By: Editor

Editor — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 14:26:29 +0000

As the article clearly points out, these are only potential conflicts. Both Oversee and SnapNames know there are potential conflicts, and it\’s good that you are addressing these.

No one can argue that Oversee will not benefit from the revenue generated on any sales, including the ones they buy.

The second group of potential conflicts are just that: potential. As I mention, there needs to a firewall between Oversee and SnapNames, much like an investment bank between i-banking and research (at least now, not necessarily five years ago).

SnapNames is clearly committed to establishing this firewall, and I have know doubt you can do this. But it\’s fair and warranted to point out the ways that any acquisition could be harmful or beneficial, regardless of the track record of the companies involved.

By: Mason Cole

Mason Cole — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 14:00:48 +0000

Thanks for the coverage, but your speculation about unfair advantage is exactly that: speculation. It is entirely unwarranted.

As spelled out — clearly and precisely — in the FAQs to which you refer, there will be NO unfair advantage to any bidder. This always has been the case with SnapNames, and will continue to be the case, Oversee included.

ANY customer or anyone covering or interested in this industry can contact us if there’s a concern about the hypotheticals you came up with here. We’ll be glad to clarify again our very firm stance on fairness and transparency.

We don’t take those issues lightly, and neither does Oversee. We built our reputation on fairness and have no intention of letting that reputation be damaged. I hope your coverage will accurately reflect this.

Mason Cole
SnapNames.com, Inc.