Unconfirmed reports suggest domain giant has laid off 30 people.
[Updated]Xconomy is citing unconfirmed reports that NameMedia, parent company of Afternic and BuyDomains, has laid off 30 employees. Please note that Xconomy has been unable to confirm the layoffs as of yet. I have reached out to multiple employees at NameMedia and will update this post as more information becomes available.
As of September 2007 the company had 136 employees according to SEC filings.
NameMedia filed to go public back in November 2007, but obviously the stock markets have not been favorable to IPOs since then.
The company generated $61.0 million in revenue in 2006 and $58.3 million in revenue during the nine months ended September 30, 2007. More recent numbers are not available, but I suspect advertising revenue has come under extreme pressure.
NameMedia owns BuyDomains, an end-user focused domain name sales site, as well as Afternic.com, a favorite aftermarket among domain owners. It also owns three domain name parking services: GoldKey, ActiveAudience, and SmartName. It purchased both GoldKey and Smartname. All three parking services are similar.
The company’s business model generates revenue from advertising (primarily on its 750,000 plus domains and through clients of its three domain parking services) and through sales of domain names through BuyDomains and Afternic. The company also has expiring domain agreements with Melbourne IT and Tucows (AMEX: TCX).
I’ll update this post if I receive any new information. If anyone has more information about the rumored layoffs please comment.
[Update: I’ve heard of at least a small handful of people being laid off, but I haven’t been able to confirm any massive company wide lay-offs.]
Hey Andrew. Let me know if you hear anything from NameMedia. We’ve been trying to reach them all week but nobody answers the phones.
I imagine all companies are cutting back on employees.
Companies are now in survival mode, not expansion mode.
I would also expect BuyDomains to lower prices and/or start pumping their domains through auctions to lighten up on lower performing and low chance of sale domains.
With roughly 60M in revenues and only 136 employees something does not seem right about having to lay off 30.
My account contact at buydomains.com is gone. I tried to call him this past week and they said he was no longer with the company.
@ Wade – will do. I’ve emailed several contacts.
@ Rob – they’re still aggressively buying, so I don’t think they’ll unload them. But they generally buy portfolios for $10-$50 a name and hope to sell them for $1,000-$5,000 a name.
@ Claude – I suspect that since those revenue numbers were released they have seen a huge hit on advertising (parking revenue) and have also grown the staff substantially.
@ Ryan – thanks. They have plenty of churn in their sales group but this certainly could be related.
wow, buy at $50 sell AT $5000…my first offers’ just went down 🙂
I think NameMedia are suffering just like everyone else has been in the market.
Now is always a good time to clear out dead wood in your company.
Regards,
Robbie
NameMedia has laid off a large number of people from several divisions. Several developer/programmers were laid off, the VP of HR, and the head of their Premium Websites division.