Company gets proactive with domain sales.

Yesterday I wrote about Microsoft’s sale of Do.com. Last month Microsoft finally relented and sold HotList.com to startup TheHotList.com.

But it appears that Microsoft might also be proactively selling some of its domain names.

Abdu Tarabichi noticed that the software giant has listed over 100 domain names for sale on domain marketplace Sedo.

If you type any of the domains into your browser, they’ll forward you to a page on fpq.biz, which then has a link to Sedo.

It’s not clear to me how long these domains have been listed on Sedo, as some of them have over 100 listing views and multiple offers. Interestingly, some are typos of domain names Microsoft uses.

Although the money Microsoft can generate from these domains is nothing big to such a large corporation, it’s nice to see it open up its treasure trove to people who may want to use the domains for a business.

Domain name transfers to IP protection company.

An old Microsoft domain name has changed hands.

The whois record for Do.com changed yesterday from Microsoft to Glendale, California company Marksmen.

Marksmen is an intellectual property company that often helps companies acquire domain names. But it also owns NameQuiver, a domain name brokerage that sells domains on behalf of other companies.

NameQuiver was the seller broker for the now complete $2.6 million Social.com sale. That domain was sold through a Moniker auction to an as-yet-unnamed buyer.

If Microsoft were just using Marksmen as a broker the domain probably would have remained in Microsoft’s name, so my verdict here is that the domain has sold.

Do.com was originally registered in 1995. Lately it merely forwarded to a Bing query for “do”, which is common for Microsoft’s unused domain names.

Domain registrar loses UDRP.

[Update June 28: IVX tweeted that it plans to sue.] A domain name registration and brand protection company has tried its hand at filing a UDRP for its own name — and lost.

Dutch company Besloten Vennootschap IVX Networks Europe B.V, which owns IVX.eu, filed the case to upgrade its domain name to IVX.com.

The ten year old company specializes in international domain name registration and brand protection. The owner of the domain claimed he acquired it in 2005 for a business venture. He provided some evidence of the original planned use. But it’s also clear that the owner wasn’t specifically targeting IVX when he registered the domain name. The three person panel determined the domain wasn’t registered in bad faith.

According to the panel write up, IVX offered $13,000 for the domain name but the owner wanted $15,000.

Something tells me the price just went up.

New York Post says web hosting and domain giant may be sold for over $1 billion.

The New York Post is reporting that Henry Kravis’ KKR is leading a group that is trying to buy Go Daddy for over $1 billion in a leveraged buy out. Bloomberg BusinessWeek reports the deal is in the $2B range.

A Go Daddy spokeswoman told the New York Post “”We’ve heard rumors like this before and when there’s something happening we will comment” and KKR said it doesn’t comment on rumors.

GoDaddy was rumored to be on the block last year but then later pulled out of the process.

I suspect Go Daddy is always entertaining offers, but this sounds more advanced than that. Of course, neither party that really knows will comment.

Service manages seller financed domain sales.

A new service called Zenscrow hopes to bring more liquidity to the domain name market by making seller financed domain sales easier.

Companies such as Escrow.com and Moniker already offer payment plan escrow services, but Zenscrow takes it a step further. There are two benefits I see to Zenscrow compared to typical payment plan services.

First, Zenscrow provides a domain sale or lease agreement.

Second, the company monitors the use of the domain name during the financing period.

This second feature is important. You might sell a domain to someone on a payment plan, only to find out they are using the domain name in a way that hurts its value. If they later stop making payments you get the domain name back but it’s damaged goods.

For example, the buyer might try search engine tricks that get the domain banned from Google, post infringing materials that result in a domain seizure or lawsuit, or use a generic domain that happens to be also be a trademark in a way that risks a UDRP case.

I’m not sure how much of a burden self-monitoring would be if you only have a few seller financed deals, but I can see the value if you handle many of these types of sales. And some monitoring, such as search engine tricks, might be difficult to monitor as an individual.

Zenscrow charges 0.25% of the domain purchase price per month with a $99/month minimum. The company doesn’t actually handle the escrow itself; this is handled by the customer’s choice of either Escrow.com or the Law Office of Howard Neu. There’s a 0.89% escrow fee at the beginning of the transaction.