Name Intelligence founder leaves company.
Jay Westerdal, founder of Name Intelligence, has left Thought Convergence.
Thought Convergence, parent company of TrafficZ, acquired Name Intelligence LLC last year. The acquisition included the popular DomainTools.com site. Westerdal remains with Name Intelligence, Inc. a holding company.
Reached by phone this afternoon, Westerdal said his departure stems from a payment dispute over the acquisition.
“Thought Convergence was not able to pay the full amount they had been obligated to pay on the anniversary of the first part of the purchase,” said Westerdal. Thought Convergence bought Name Intelligence in May 2008. “They have another payment due in 2010.” Westerdal said he is considering legal action.
Thought Convergence said it will issue a formal statement later today. Thought Convergence issued a formal statement Wednesday evening, stating that Westerdal’s termination was unrelated to a dispute over the acquisition of Name Intelligence. The company also said it has enough money to pay for the acquisition and the balance of what it owes has been placed in escrow with its law firm.
Clarification: lots of people asked if Westerdal was fired. In both an e-mail to colleagues and in our phone conversation, he said he was indeed terminated.
wannadevelop.com says
Pretty unfortunate to see this things happen.. But Rick Schwartz private board was closed because Jay drove Rick Schwartz crazy, and many of us lost out on a useful resource… Karma is a bitch 🙁
EM @ KING.NET says
LOL
Chris Nielsen says
I liked Jay and I will miss him. He provided a number of good things beneficial to all in the industry. I didn’t appreciate being ignored by him on several occaisions, but I know that important people are often too busy to respond to small players with their petty questions or comments.
Funny comment about the Rick Schwartz private board though, I had not heard about that. But doesn’t that reflect poorly on Rick Schwartz, or the board itself? I mean, I don’t think of Rick being intimidated by anyone in the industry. And if you are willing to shut something down just to be rid of one person, doesn’t that say the board was not worth fighting for…???
Either way, the domain community is fun to watch. I’m kinda glad no one cares about what I do or say… 🙂
Domain Investor says
Chris,
Like many things in life, that is not the whole story. But, I’ll leave it there.
And, yes. Jay was problematic on Rick’s “old” board.
I guess Jay won’t be at Domain Roundtable.
trey says
Jay will be using his proceeds to buy TRAFFIC- the show
Justin Godfrey says
Sorry to hear. I’m sure Jay won’t have trouble finding his next venture.
wannadevelop.com says
Jay is one of the domain industry’s most accomplished and youngest businessman without a doubt who has made a lot of moves over the past few years especially… But what he pulled over at Rick’s board and the consequences — it was really shitty and hundreds of ex-members had a change of heart overnight.
So what is the lesson learned with all of this…. ? 😉
yesthatwouldbeme says
I’m guessing Ammar realized he overpaid for Jay’s company and probably would rather let the deal fail as the assets they acquired aren’t worth much — let the courts sort it out and move on.
Drewbert says
>He provided a number of good things beneficial to all in
>the industry.
Is there a list somewhere I missed?
Justin Godfrey says
Ever hear of Domain Tools?
RKB says
Surprising news indeed!
D says
Jay is psycho
Drewbert says
>Ever hear of Domain Tools?
One thing does not make “a list”. Nor was it “beneficial to all in the industry”, so try again sunshine.
>Surprising news indeed!
Why?
Drewbert says
>Jay is psycho
The Domain Industry’s Milli Vanilli ?
ICANN’s new gTLD process is sure pulling them out of the woodwork.
Jewbert says
I guess he’ll have to blame it on the rain!
Petros says
Drewbert, agreed. Domain Tools is capitalizing on our personal information and that is hardly beneficial to everyone
Drewbert says
And totally against WHOIS policy. But, hey, when has ICANN ever done anything about it?
IQ says
Was TrafficZ ever more than a shill?
Kevin Ohashi says
Drewbert: is the answer: nothing?
Duh Morons says
Westerdal is a smart entrepreneur. Domain tools is a highly useful tool to law enforcement, and victims of fraud, theft, scams, trademark infringement, etc. Unless you’ve been a victim of a thief you may not understand the usefulness of such a tool. But then again many of you are sitting on, and profiting from domains infringing on the trademarks of “real” companies, so you’ll likely disagree and whine about the “privacy concerns”. If you are so concerned about your personal privacy go rent a mail drop, and file a dba or incorporate.
Last time I check Schwartz’s blog it was nothing but whining anyway.