Deal completed after lawsuit settlement.
The sale of Epik to a new entity has been completed, Domain Name Wire has confirmed.
Earlier this week, the company agreed to sell its registrar and hosting business to Epik LLC, a new entity for which we don’t know the owners.
But the deal was in flux after one person Epik owed money to asked a court to block the deal. That person settled with the company yesterday and terminated the lawsuit, allowing the deal to go through.
The original deal — which might have been adjusted to resolve the lawsuit — had a $4.9 million price tag. Most of that was earmarked to pay off debts Epik owed. Among the debt was significant trade debt owed to registries. Now that those debts are paid off, Epik should be able to continue servicing domain name renewals.
I have a feeling the drama isn’t over yet.
This is too weird!
The asset transfer was from Epik Holdings Inc (Washington) to Epik LLC (Wyoming).
It is a week old LLC owned and operated by unknown parties.
Epik moved assets of value, and left debts. Many of these debts are to customers who have been scammed aka victims.
Excluded from the sale is Masterbucks. They are the designated bag holders.
Epik (Wyoming) is already playing dumb with some of these debts, like the $91K that was scammed from Kathleen Kalaf via Epik’s escrow services.
“Epik LLC” apparently showed up on NamePros, and made a very inconsiderate post. It did not go well for them.
Oh, and around the same time Rob Monster logged into his account for the first time since 2022.
Brad
Good investigating
Did someone say fraudulent conveyance?
The leapord doe not change the color of the stripes
Reputation already being damaged beyond repaired
Registering company to other states just to hide their identity and liabilities
Epik could have done the Texas 2 steps bankruptcy and avoid all liabilities and not paying anyone
Who would want to own Epik?
Lose Lose situation IMO
I wouldn’t mind owning Epik.
There were 81 million people that voted for Joe Biden. The rest of the nay-votes are people tied to working-class business owners that are tired of the system telling them what they can and cannot do.
I could foresee dropping domainers as a targeted market segment — because they whine about every little thing, trying to get the cheapest renewals possible leaving registrars with lower margins than the food industry — and going after the people that didn’t vote for Joe Biden in the parallel economy during the great cultural shift, unfolding before our eyes.
I believe there are enough people out there that run a business that would subscribe to the old school rate of $99 every two years for domain name renewal services (and probably throw in a small hosting or email service to go with it, if requested) — many domainers that are around now couldn’t have possibly operated when we were in the fax-to-register Tucows era, let alone hold 1000s of domains in their portfolio without jacking up their prices 10 to 100 times, making them look incredibly unattractive to buy, therefore dropping them and giving up without sales.
I say remove Epik from the targeted presence of domainers and have Epik target the roofers, the carpenters, the landscapers, etc. that are tired of forking their hard-earned money over to ESG and DEI companies that don’t care about their customers… Essentially, bringing the Bud Light Effect over to domain names when the big registrars are exposed for who they really are, pandering to corporations owned by the elite that don’t care what the customer really wants, all through strategic marketing campaigns with independent media support.
Epik wouldn’t need millions of domains under management to be a success, or to have a valuation of $150,000,000 with those profit margins from business owners that wouldn’t mind paying it and writing the extra off as a business expense. That is, for as long as they know they are actually supporting the Constitution and free speech, and not catering to woke ideology.
Just my two cents.
Call me a fool, but my domains are still at Epik.
Say hi to the new owner of Epik.
100%
Typical Rob Monster stuff, hopefully the law will catch up with him.
Hey Epik stop taking renewals and not renewing domains , like wtf
Matthew Adkisson got a court order holding up the sale of Epik, and that is why he most likely got all of his money. If Kathleen Kalaf had done the same thing, she most likely would have also gotten her money. That was the moment they had the most leverage.
When there is that kind of money at stake, it’s time to get legal representation.
It seems that she will end up getting her money, at least based on my reading of the Asset Purchase Agreement.
Sadly, I’m not so sure about that. Epik transferred her sale proceeds to Masterbucks months ago. However Masterbucks is explicitly excluded from the sale.
Yes, in-store credit is supposed to be covered, but this is Epik in-store credit. There is no cover for credit at Masterbucks.
Source of the APA?
Never mind, found it.
A lawsuit filing
Update: She has been paid
I agree M. Castillo’s take.
On NamePros many helpful contributors recommended Kathleen Kalaf file a civil suit like Adkisson.
Seems she placed her faith in ICANN, FBI and State AG Washington.
I believe criminal charges could be forthcoming, but filing the civil lawsuit was needed as well.
@Allemann’s take is too speculative for a victim owed $91K from a company in Epik’s position. The AP agreement is unconvincing to me until K. Kalaf reports she got paid.
How much do you think Matthew Adkisson paid for his legal representation, though?
He may have paid zero on the front and back end.
Lawyers take a case like Adkisson’s on contingency basis or with a request defendant pay attorney fees all the time.
Kathleen Kalaf and others in her situations could have followed Adkissons model.
Some lawyers are flexible in payment, if they think the chance of winning and being paid is extremely high.
Do you know what a Registered Agent Is?
Sounds like Rob Monster could be the new buyer of Epic.
So epik sells to epik and the new owner is epik…wtf
How much$$$? Or it is just a change of paperwork
Smells like Stinkin rat scam
Lol soo much confusion in this drama
Unfortunately this is NOT a trustworthy company.
Would not trust them with my money or my domains!
Where are all those idiots that were touting Epik as the best registrar BLAH, BLAH, BLAH for all those years??
I still have one domain I have been trying to transfer out with no luck. They suck!!
I read what they say and how. they say it, these Are NASTY people!! They blame their own customers for THEIR malfeasance and terrible management especially with money owed!!
They they lash out??
If your domains are still there, you must be a brain dead schmuck!!
Agreed Rock.
How do I transfer my domain name from Epik nothing is working in there site
Not by a long shot, but I wish I had the liquidity to scoop it up. It’d be an invaluable asset, in my opinion, working with others in creating a parallel economy in order to safe harbor free speech at a domain name level.
At least at the registrar level, I could prevent some things. However, the DNS level would be the next target, which would be the first strategic partnership to slow that process down.
Odd that anyone would have anything against free speech to begin with, but, that’s where we are today; defining what speech is and isn’t allowed, as if it’s not a God given right (in most instances, no need to cite SCOTUS law). Though, anybody attacking it probably has something against inalienable rights to begin with, wanting to control it much like, a regime that wants to remain in power would. However, right-wingers are the fascists, am I right?
Here’s a mirror.
Main problem is that the person running the place is a lunatic and incredibly unethical.
ICANN needs to terminate the accreditation and ban management from being involved in an another registrar. The unfortunate thing is he keeps popping up with new domain industry companies when they go bust.
They’ll only pay the people suing them and the registries that they need to do business with in the future. It is like when Adam Dicker paid Uniregistry. Certain people they have no choice but to pay.
These guys will happily screw over everyone else because they have zero ethics.