Will we see domain name companies go bust in 2009?
It’s capitalism at its best. Circuit City is being liquidated after failing to find a buyer. Linens ‘n Things is finishing up the liquidation process (I wonder when they’ll sell the LNT.com domain?).
And that’s how it’s supposed to be. Weak companies fail, strong ones thrive. Thank goodness the government didn’t step in to bailout Circuit City. Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) offers a superior shopping experience. Even though it is facing hard times, it has knocked a competitor out and should reap the rewards.
Will we see similar failures and consolidation in the domain industry this year?
Domain Parking Companies
At last count there are about 20 well known domain parking companies.
Companies go bankrupt when they can’t service their debt. The startup costs of running a domain parking company are minimal. So parking companies rarely carry long term debt, unless it is for another part of its business. Advanced parking companies, such as DomainSponsor, have higher costs of doing business because they hire mathematicians and optimizers. But the point is that most domain parking companies could survive even if they scale back to a couple people managing the system.
We could see some consolidation in domain parking, but there’s not much benefit in buying a competitor’s parking business. Customers are usually under no obligation to keep their domains there, and can flee to another service the day after the company is acquired. Sometimes buying a parking company for its technology or advertising contract makes sense.
Domain Name Registrars
There are huge economies of scale for domain registrars and consolidation makes sense. I think we’ll see a lot of consolidation in this space over the next year or two. Domain registrars may have taken on some debt to get going (or to buy an existing registrar), but it’s still limited compared to other types of businesses. But the benefits of combining operations may be compelling.
Other Domain Businesses
We might see failures at other domain related businesses. Banks.com is essentially dead thanks to its heavy debt load (backed in part by IRS.com). One other company to keep an eye on is Live Current Media (OTCBB: livc.ob), which is scrambling to raise cash. Although debt-light, it technically owes its cricket partners lots of money this year (although they have forgiven some those payments in the past). Other debt-laden companies include NameMedia, but NameMedia is doing a good job extracting case from its assets.
How does Best Buy offer a “superior shopping experience” to that of Circuit City? Just wondering if you could expand on that assertion.
I’m glad Circuit City is going out of biz they have the worst customer service with an attitude.Thats what they get.Cya
Probably because their customers had an attitude!
Curious:
Circuit City blew it in March 2007 when they made the classic mistake of trying to save money by firing their experienced salespeople for cheaper newbies. Here’s a news article about it (even then analysts knew it was a mistake): http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17837882/
@ Curious – many, many reasons. Personally, I hated the service, layout, and product selection at Circuit City.
Bought my last 2 computers at Circuit City, both were priced cheaper than Best Buy and I actually had a sales guy that answered any question I threw at him, waiting for help at Best Buy got old as there are too many people in the store and not enough staff to compensate, personally speaking I preferred Circuit City.
I did not like Circuit City’s mail in rebate problems while Best Buy moved to instant rebates a long ago.
David’s right. When they fired all their hard-working, knowledgeable, experienced sales people…then offered them their same jobs back at much-reduced pay, many folks–me included–swore off buying from them for good.
I feel bad for their 1,000’s of current employees, but as for the company itself, they got what they deserved.
ps Any thoughts from anyone willing to go on the record as to who they believe is going to buy who…and who; if any company; will go under?
“ps Any thoughts from anyone willing to go on the record as to who they believe is going to buy who…and who; if any company; will go under?”
I too would love to see that answer!
Regards,
Robbie
I didn’t like shopping at either Circuit City or Best Buy and got exactly what I wanted by buying online from HP. Stores add to much unneeded software into the computers. I prefer to buy most items online.