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20 end user domain name sales up to $55,000

by — Domain Sales 0 Comments

A cryptocurrency exchange, clothing designer and customized apparel company bought domain names.

Blockchain and cryptocurrency companies continue to buy domain names, and this week’s chart-leader at Sedo was BTCExchange.com for $55,000.

This was one of 20 end user sales I uncovered by reviewing Sedo’s weekly list of sales over $2,000.

Also notable is that a .co.uk domain sold for £22,500–a high amount for a .co.uk–but the buyer isn’t known yet.

Here are the end user domain name sales I uncovered in Sedo’s list this week.

(You can view previous lists like this here.)

Click to continue reading…

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What Internet Commerce Association is working on

by — Services 5 Comments

Internet Commerce Association updates members on some of the policy work it is doing.

Last week the Internet Commerce Association (ICA) held a member call to provide an update on what the organization is doing to advocate for domain name investors.

Here are just some of the things ICA is working on:

  • UDRP and UDRP reform
  • Whois access accreditation and accessibility in the wake of GDPR
  • Verisign’s request to auction off O.com and how it might set precedent
  • U.S. NTIA activities as they relate to domain names, such as the Cooperative Agreement with Verisign

ICA is also representing domain name investors at policy conferences including all of the ICANN meetings.

In addition to policy activities, the group discussed its budget. It’s a lean operation with a very low annual budget. With more domain investor support, the organization could commit more resources to fight on behalf of domain name investors.

You can see membership options here. They include everything from a $50-a-month individual option to corporate levels. And if you’d prefer to pay for a larger sponsorship in cryptocurrency, I bet they’ll accommodate you.

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Ice.com, a domain with a rich history, sells again. This time for $3.5 million.

by — Domain Sales 9 Comments

Once a dot-com darling, the Ice.com domain name finds a new owner.

Ice.com circa 2004, from Archive.org Wayback Machine

Today’s announced sale of the Ice.com domain name for $3.5 million brings me back down memory lane.

I remember shopping on the site in the early 2000s.

That was in a much earlier incarnation of Ice.com. It was a dot-com darling founded in 1999 (launching in 2000 on Ice.com) that raised about $50 million in funding.

Back in 2006, Ice.com bought rival Odimo for $9.5 million. That included $2 million for inventory at $7.5 million for its domain name Diamond.com — making it one of the most expensive domain names ever sold.

But Ice.com ultimately didn’t make it.

An Austin-based company bought Ice.com for $3.0 million in 2014. They subsequently raised $2 million of investment.

That business didn’t work out, either, which leads us to today: an announcement that the domain sold for $3.5 million, making it the most expensive domain name sale of 2018 in what’s shaping up to be a very big week for domain name sales announcements.

Brian Harbin from GritBrokerage.com and David Clements from Brannans.com represented the seller and buyer respectively.

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CentralNic scoops up KeyDrive for up to $55 million

by — Domain Registrars 0 Comments

Deal includes cash and share consideration with earnout that could make it a $55 million total price tag.

CentralNic (AIM: CNIC) announced today that it has agreed to acquire KeyDrive S.A. for up to $55 million.

The deal includes initial consideration of $35.8 million, made up of $16.5 million in cas and the rest in shares of CentralNic. That equals an enterprise value of $44.5 million after considering debt and other assumptions.

An additional $10.5 million will be paid as an earnout, with at least 15% of that in cash.

KeyDrive is the parent company of Key-Systems, Moniker, BrandShelter and other domain name brands. In the 2017 financial year, it grossed $58.26 million and had an adjusted EBITDA of $5.87 million.

CentralNic is a registry services provider and owns retail registrars including Instra and Internet.bs.

Merger talks started no later than the first quarter of this year.

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17 end user sales up to $130,000

by — Domain Sales 0 Comments

Some recognizable companies bought domain names at Sedo.

One of the enjoyable things about researching domain name sales is that I learn about interesting industries, foreign language terms, and fun entrepreneurial ventures. This week, for example, I learned that Sekt is the name for German sparkling wine.

Notable this week: Bosch bought a two-hyphen domain name for €12,500 as part of an eBike marketing campaign, a maker of fine quality jigsaw puzzles bought a .co.uk domain, and a special effects company bought a clever three word domain.

Here’s a list of some of the end user domain name sales that took place at Sedo over the past week.

NBX.com $130,000 – The buyer is unknown, but I’m going to assume it’s a crypto company.

Sekt.com €22,500 – Sekt is German sparking wine and the buyer, Henkell & Co. Sektkellerei KG, is a seller of sekt and other alcohol.

Feel-the-flow.de €12,500 – Bosch bought this domain, and it forwards to a page about its eBikes.

TWCapital.com $10,000 – TW Capital Co., Ltd. in Bangkok.

PhoneCovers.com $5,600 – Tech Master IT Services in the UK is a computer repair company.

Verified.io $5,000 – The eSignature company Verified which uses the domain name Verified.eu.

Lahcg.com $4,880 – LHC Group is a healthcare company based in Lafayette, Louisiana. Its current domain name is LHCGroup.com. Maybe the A stands for “and”?

Net4Energy.com $4,880 – The domain forwards to the website for Creos Deutschland Services GmbH, which offers energy-related services.

Totectors.com $3,500 – International Brands Group sells shoes under a number of different brands. I suspect this will be for a new brand or product feature name.

Cryptocraft.org $3,500 – Forex Factory in Florida.

ThinkFun.co.uk $3,000 – Ravensburger AG makes toys and games. It’s known for making high-quality jigsaw puzzles.

HarmonyFoundation.com $3,000 – Harmony Foundation is an alcohol and drug rehabilitation center. It uses the domain name HarmonyFoundationInc.com.

Bident.com $2,749 – Bident Services, LLC in California.

BloodAndThunder.com $2,500 – Legacy Effects is a Hollywood move effects and makeup company. I love the name for this. (Don’t visit the page yet. It goes to a scam zero click lander.

Osano.com $2,256 – Osano is a stealth-mode company in Austin that “builds products which are venture backable, scalable, and have a minimum potential of a $100M market cap.”

Matrix.info £2,000 – Matrix Financial Services in Hong Kong.

Visas.fr €2,000 – Visas is being developed as a tourism site.

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