Marchex spin-off is open for business.
Archeo, which is being spun off from Marchex, formally launched its domain name marketplace to the public today. The site went live last month.
The marketplace at ArcheoDomains.com features over 200,000 domain names, many of which were part of the $164 million acquisition of Yun Ye’s portfolio in 2005.
Last week I had a chance to visit Archeo’s office in Seattle and meet some of the people that will drive the spin-off.
The key takeaway, which is evident with the formal launch of the marketplace, is that Archeo is “open for business”.
For years, people emailing Marchex about domain names it owned usually received a response that they needed to make an offer over $30,000 in order for the company to consider selling the domain name. Domain sales weren’t a focus for the company. They were a distraction.
But that is changing as the company’s domain business becomes Archeo. It is proactively selling domain names and is working with a number of brokers to help it. You no longer need to offer $30,000 just to elicit a response.
This is definitely a company to watch over the next couple years. There’s a lot of low hanging fruit in Archeo’s portfolio since it has been largely untouched for almost a decade. The company has hired a number of familiar faces from the domain industry as well.
Stay tuned…
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