Berkens sells majority of domain names to GoDaddy.
GoDaddy has acquired the majority of Michael Berkens’ domain name portfolio; the company announced today.
Berkens writes the blog TheDomains.com and his portfolio was under the company Worldwide Media.
GoDaddy acquired the vast majority of Berkens’ domain names, about 70,000 names in total.
“GoDaddy is focused on making sure our customers get the perfect online name for their business or passion, so we’re always looking at ways to improve what domain names our customers can register,” said GoDaddy Senior Vice President and General Manager Mike McLaughlin. “Our plan is to make these names accessible to small businesses. Worldwide Media, Inc.’s founder Michael Berkens has assembled an incredible portfolio of names and has been such an integral part of the domain name aftermarket for so many years.”
The deal comes after GoDaddy acquired Marchex’s domain name portfolio earlier this year.
When GoDaddy acquired the Marchex portfolio, GoDaddy SVP and GM of Domains Mike McLaughlin told Domain Name Wire that the company wasn’t going to become a domain name investor, buying domain names one-off. However, he said the company would look at portfolios similar to that of Marchex.
In a key way, Berkens’ portfolio is a lot like the one Marchex sold to GoDaddy.
Berkens was known for holding out for top dollar for his domain names. Most were not priced, either.
That was also the case for Marchex’s portfolio, and GoDaddy was able to quickly sell many of the domain names by reducing prices and listing then with fixed prices on its Afternic network.
The Worldwide Media portfolio acquisition suggests that GoDaddy is very happy with the results of its Marchex domain portfolio so far.
GoDaddy did not acquire Berkens’ adult domain names, nor most of his names under new top level domain names.
Congratulations Michael and Godaddy!
wow. wonder the $$$$$$$$.
surprised thedomains didnt break this story. lulz
That’s surprising and cool news. It seems Mike will be left with around 10K names in his portfolio.
Congrats as well! Got truly surprised by the tweet just now from Mike, but seems all the big Holders seek to exit Domaining in this fashion nowadays (Mike Mann’s portfolio sale is another example).. just curious about the sales price, although i guess we will never find it out..
Best Hannukkah ever. Congratulations, Mike.
That’s unexpected. Congratulations to Mike and GoDaddy!
Wow!! And I bet Mike bled them too. Wonder if we’ll get to know the price paid. Congrats to Mike!
GoDaddy is a sophisticated buyer. I suspect both sides are happy with the deal.
50 mil cashout?
i must say though for domain prices in general this sale isn’t good. mike was hardline on his prices and kept them good and high. most likely godaddy will sell them for much less than mike would of.
If so, that will put pressure on new TLDs, which might really hurt them even more than they are hurting now.
Congrats to both!
My guess is he dumped all the crap that didn’t generate any interest and kept the good stuff. He’s probably very happy to stop having to renew those domain names. Smart guy.
It appears he sold everything other than the adult domains and some new TLDs.
“The rest of our non-adult inventory we retained, which are mostly new gTLD’s will be under The.Domains.”
He does say mostly which leaves room for his best domain names.
The 60 3 letter ,coms for sale on DNF that belong to Berkins are definitely not new tlds.
Incredible news! Congratulations Michael Berkens and GoDaddy. Michael’s had a real penchant for really solid generic names.
LOL….sure about that? I have seen a sea of mediocre to lame domain he owns also, just like Schilling has.
This is great for mike but terrible for the industry! Terrible !!!
Dont you see it.. they are all selling…. Rick finally selling some and now Mike!
Its a lack of vote of confidence in the .com domains! Smart people leave at the peak! This is it my friends! Wow!
@mori,
Wasn’t the primary objective to sell domains? Michael Berkens and Rick Schwartz have each racked up very impressive retail sales during 2015.
Unless I’m mistaken, it was Rick’s best year. He didn’t sell off cheap, by any means. Instead, he set records.
Keep in mind, neither Rick nor Mike is in his twenties. So I’d read this as a function of time-in-career rather than lack of confidence in the future of domaining. Both men could continue working for decades, but why should they work full time forever? Yes, domain portfolio management (not to mention blogging) is work. At some point, most of us want to retire or at least cut back on hours. So there should be an exit.
Now, I’m not suggesting Berkens is retiring; and I frankly hope he won’t yet. But with extra cash in his pocket and fewer domains to manage, he’s positioned much more nimbly to do more of whatever he pleases, whenever he wants. Maybe he’ll reinvest in domains. Maybe he’ll apply to run a new TLD registry in the next round. Maybe not. Only he can say.
I think this bodes well for the domain market. After all, GoDaddy recently bought 1 large portfolio (from Marchex / Archeo). And they obviously found the sales encouraging enough that they’re buying yet another large portfolio. If that isn’t a good sign, then I don’t know what is.
Smart people enjoy their retirement.
You can’t take your domains to the grave. Everyone sells eventually. Rick and Mike are both getting much older.
…Yeah, what Joseph wrote.
I have to agree – this is a little scary. These are domains that haven’t really seen the market given their unattainable prices and inevitable intense negotiation, both of which Godaddy will make easy. Incredibly smart for both parties given the assumed success with the Marchex portfolio and the impressive sale price we’re all guessing, but very scary for the lower tier of investors/sellers who will have a lot more in the market to compete with.
Not at all. In fact, that Godaddy focused on the “.com” only is very telling. Remember that they have the numbers on the performance of the new TLDs. Furthermore, I am going to presume that Godaddy is investing for the future.
Not a good news for most of the smaller domainers
It probably isn’t good news for smaller domains, as godaddy has great channels, and probably a very low acquisition cost over 70,000 domains to sell as they are not attached to anything.
Simply
Sale Price – Cost = Profit for Shareholders Of Godaddy
Even at $50M that is $700 per name, if the number is $25M that is $350 per name.
Most likely he took a little cash, but probably more stock.
The huge spike in .com selling including rare LL/LLL started in 2014. If i was a large .com holder i’d be selling too as peak has been reached already.
Smart move, logical and my advise is to diversify portfolio and not cling only to .com.
I can only wish Mike well with this decision he has taken and I hope he would still be around for some of us, his followers.
Congrats.