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MMX returns £58.0 million to shareholders after GoDaddy deal

by Andrew Allemann — October 11, 2021 Uncategorized 0 Comments

Fully subscribed tender offer returns cash to shareholders.

MMX (aka Minds + Machines, AIM: MMX) has completed a tender offer and returned £58.0 million to shareholders.

The tender offer was initiated to return capital to shareholders after GoDaddy (NYSE: GDDY) paid approximately £88 million for the majority of its assets. MMX is (was) a top level domain name company and sold all of its remaining top level domain names to GoDaddy. Its assets included names such as .vip, .works and .xxx.

MMX bought back and canceled 69.0% of the company’s outstanding shares through the tender offer at a price of 9.6 pence per ordinary share. Shares are now trading for about 8.5 pence.

The company is now providing support services to GoDaddy for a limited time.

Some “meaningful” numeric domains sold in September

by Kassey Lee — October 8, 2021 Uncategorized 1 Comment

Kassey Lee reviews some recent numeric domain sales and what they could be used for.

Numeric domains up to 4N are used in corporate China because they are relatively short and easy to remember. Some also have good Chinese meanings, such as Alibaba’s 1688.com site, which means “Making a fortune all the way”.

Namebio reports ten 3N domains and eighteen 4N domains sold in September. Below are some of them which are meaningful in Chinese.

4656.com sold for $12,362 on September 30. 4656 rhymes with Si Lu Wu Liu (丝路物流) which means “Silk Road logistics”. Obviously, the domain can be used for a logistics business.

6046.com sold for $9,299 on September 13. 6046 rhymes with Liu Ling Shi Lu (六铃石路) which means “A stone path lined with six bells”. Since the meaning is generic, the domain can be used for a variety of purposes, such as tourism, restaurant, or beauty salon.

596.cc sold for $7,626 on September 2. 596 rhymes with Wan Jiu Le (玩久了) which means “Playing for a long while”. The domain can be used for games.

1119.cc sold for $1,500 on September 24. 1119 rhymes with Yao Yao Yao Jiu (邀邀邀酒) which means “Invite (3x) to drink wine”. The domain can be used for wine-related businesses.

7891.cc sold for $830 on September 27. 7891 rhymes with Qi Ba Jiu Yi (奇吧酒意) which means “An unusual bar giving you a tipsy feeling”. Obviously, the domain can be used by a drinking bar.

1099.io sold for $305 on September 2. 1099 rhymes with Yi Liao Jiu Jiu (医疗舅舅) which means “Uncle of medical services”. The domain can be used in the medical field.

9811.net sold for $247 on September 2. 9811 rhymes with Jiu Ba Yi Yi (酒吧依依) which means “A drinking bar which you don’t want to leave”. The domain can be used by a drinking bar.

6898.net sold for $145 on September 30. The numbers 68 and 98 are liked by Chinese people. 6898 rhymes with Liu Ba Jiu Ba (68酒吧) which means a drinking bar named “68”. Obviously, the domain can be used by a drinking bar.

.Cc is an interesting extension. It was once promoted as an extension meaning “Chinese Company” even though it is actually the country extension for Cocos (Keeling) Islands. I have seen some use of it, such as QSbank.cc, a commercial bank with registered capital of about $600 million. In the domain industry, Wanmi.cc (玩米网=Site for playing with domains) is a domain marketplace that offers comprehensive services including data on domain sales.

Bezos-backed Beacon builds on Beacon.com

by James Iles — October 6, 2021 Uncategorized 0 Comments

Company upgraded its domain from .co.uk.

Supply chains are a vital cog in the wheel of the interconnected global economy. Optimal supply chain management is vital, which may be why the worldwide supply chain management market was worth $15.58 billion in 2020, with that figure expected to rise to $30.91 billion by 2026.

Despite the industry’s value, many customers face supply chain challenges, including forecasting issues and supply chain disruptions.

In 2018, Dmitri Izmailov and Fraser Robinson founded Beacon to solve pain points that exist across many supply chains. By offering a digital platform, Beacon promotes a technology-first approach to supply chain management, with data readily available to improve efficiency and perform vital analysis.

Its business really took off during the COVID-19 pandemic when consumer demand, online spending, and increases in freight rates meant that supply chains were under considerable pressure. Companies turned to Beacon’s digital platform to find a solution.

It isn’t just businesses that have taken notice of Beacon. Investors have, too. The company has raised $65 million, including an oversubscribed $50 million Series B funding round announced this month.

A list of Beacon’s early backers is who’s who of business leaders. Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, Salesforce founder Marc Benioff and Uber co-founders Garrett Camp and Travis Kalanick have all taken part in at least one Beacon funding round. Amazon founder and centibillionaire Jeff Bezos has also contributed to Beacon’s funding, acting as a lead investor in the company’s Series A round.

Beacon, a British company based in London, started its journey on the UK ccTLD, .co.uk. It also owned Beacon.co, but it took Beacon until 2020 to acquire Beacon.com.

WHOIS history shows that Beacon.com changed hands in 2018, with brokerage company Media Options listed as the registrant before ownership changed to Internet Real Estate Ltd. Media Options’ CEO, Andrew Rosener, confirmed the acquisition of Beacon.com in a 2018 tweet.

By May 2020, Beacon had acquired Beacon.com.

A company with international aspirations will struggle to thrive on a ccTLD such as .co.uk, which may be why the company paid an undisclosed fee to upgrade from Beacon.co.uk to Beacon.com.

As is often the case, the acquisition of Beacon.com happened just before the company announced its Series A funding round.

With a rapidly growing workforce and a new office in Hong Kong, Beacon is a truly international company, and it now has the domain name to match.

These 70 large companies can benefit from upgrading their domains

by Kassey Lee — October 5, 2021 Uncategorized 2 Comments

These companies could upgrade to a brand matching or .com domain.

The more I study end users in China, the more I am convinced there is great potential in the Chinese domain market. Many Chinese companies can benefit from acquiring better domains as upgrades.

Such opportunities can be found, for example, in the Top 100 Chinese Multinational Corporations in 2020 list (in Chinese) published by the China Enterprise Directors Association (Ceda) that I came across recently. It shows that a whopping 70% of the multinational companies may need a domain upgrade to join the club of global players.

Here’s the result of my research.

Ranking	Chinese	English	Domain
1	中国石油	CNPC	CNPC.com.cn*
2	中信集团	Citic	Group.citic
3	中国石化	Sinopec	Sinopec.com
4	中国远洋海运集团	COSCO	COSCOShipping.com*
5	腾讯	Tencent	Tencent.com
6	中国海油	CNOOC	CNOOC.com.cn*
7	中化集团	Sinochem	Sinochem.com
8	中国化工集团	ChemChina	ChemChina.com
9	华为	Huawei	Huawei.com
10	国家电网	State Grid	SGCC.com.cn*
11	联想	Legend	LegendHoldings.com.cn*
12	中国交建	China Communications Construction	CCCcLtd.cn*
13	中国铝业	Chalco	Chalco.com.cn*
14	越秀集团	Yuexiu	Yuexiu.com
15	中国建筑	China State Construction	CSCEC.com*
16	中国五矿	China Minmetals	MinMetals.com
17	吉利	Geely	Geely.com
18	中国电建	Power China	PowerChina.cn*
19	中广核	CGN	CGNpc.com.cn*
20	兵器工业集团	Norinco	NorincoGroup.com.cn*
21	潍柴	Weichai	Weichai.com
22	美的	Midea	Midea.com
23	海尔	Haier	Haier.com
24	洛阳钼业	China Molybdenum	ChinaMoly.com
25	万洲国际	WH Group	WH-Group.com*
26	国家电投	SPIC	SPIC.com.cn*
27	中国华能	Huaneng	CHNG.com.cn*
28	中粮集团	COFCO	COFCO.com
29	中国能建	China Energy Engineering Corporation	ceec.net.cn*
30	绿地	Greenland	Greenlandsc.com*
31	光明食品	Bright Food	BrightFood.com
32	兖矿集团	Yankuang	YKJT.com*
33	首创集团	Beijing Capital Group	BJcapital.com*
34	苏宁	Suning	Suning.com
35	河钢	HBIS	Hbisco.com*
36	中国铁建	CRCC	CRCC.cn*
37	沙钢	Shagang	Sha-Steel.com*
38	中国中铁	CREC	CRECG.com*
39	中国有色集团	CNMC	CNMC.com.cn*
40	紫金	Zijin Mining	ZijinMining.com*
41	中国移动	China Mobile	ChinaMobile.com
42	TCL	TCL	TCL.com
43	中国宝武	Baowu	BaowuGroup.com*
44	华电	CHD	CHD.com.cn*
45	云投	YIG	cnYIG.com*
46	海信	HiSense	HiSense.com
47	三一	Sany	SanyGroup.com*
48	中国电子	CEC	CEC.com.cn*
49	上汽集团	SAIC Motor	SAICMotor.com*
50	恒逸	Hengyi	Hengyi.com
51	中兴	ZTE	ZTEHoldings.com*
52	如意	Ruyi	ChinaRuyi.com*
53	中国南方电网	CSG	CSG.cn*
54	中集	China International Marine Containers	CIMC.com
55	国机	Sinomach	Sinomach.com.cn*
56	金川集团	Jinchuan	jnmc.com*
57	青山	Tsingshan	tssgroup.com.cn*
58	首钢	Shougang	Shougang.com.cn*
59	上海电气	Shanghai Electric	Shanghai-Electric.com*
60	华夏幸福	China Fortune Land	CFLdcn.com*
61	国投	SDIC	SDIC.com.cn*
62	万向	Wanxiang	Wanxiang.com
63	东航	China Eastern Airlines	CEair.com*
64	云南能投	YEIG	cnYEIG.com*
65	中国建材	CNBM	CNBMltd.com*
66	中国中车	CRRC	CRRCgc.cc*
67	北京电控	Beijing Electronic Holding Co	BEHC.com.cn*
68	华发	Huafa	cnHuafag.com*
69	中国化学	China National Chemical Engineering	CNCEc.com.cn*
70	中国联通	China Unicom	ChinaUnicom.com
71	金风	Goldwind	Goldwind.com
72	协鑫	GCL	GCL-power.com*
73	首农	CAG	bjCAG.com*
74	新华联	MacroLink	MacroLink.com.cn*
75	青岛城市建设	Qingdao City Development Group	QDCT.cn*
76	青建	CNQC	CNQC.com
77	魏桥	Weiqiao	WeiqiaoCY.com*
78	鞍钢	Ansteel	AnsteelGroup.com*
79	北京建工	BCEG	BCEGc.com*
80	浙江能源	Zhejiang Energy Group	ZJenergy.com.cn*
81	中国电信	China Telecom	ChinaTelecom-h.com*
82	新希望	New Hope	NewHopeGroup.com*
83	广晟	Guangdong Rising Assets Management	gdrising.com.cn*
84	铜陵有色	Tong Ling You Se	TLYS.cn*
85	长电	JCET	JCETglobal.com*
86	复星	Fosun	Fosun.com
87	万华	Wanhua	WHchem.com*
88	白银有色	BNMC	bynmc.com*
89	中国信科	CICT	CICT.com
90	大唐国际	Datang	cdt-zbkg.com*
91	东方国际	Orient International Holding	OIH.com.cn*
92	海亮	Hailiang	Hailiang.com
93	北控	Beijing Enterprises Group	BEGCL.com*
94	云南建投	YCIH	ynjstzkg.com*
95	雅戈尔	Youngor	Youngor.com
96	海螺	Conch	Conch.cn*
97	中国黄金	China National Gold Group	Chinagoldgroup.com*
98	上海建工	Shanghai Construction Group	SCG.com.cn*
99	通用技术	Genertec	Genertec.com.cn*
100	徐工	XCMG	XCMG.com

* indicates upgrade to a brand-matching .com is beneficial.

67% of the companies are already using .com, so a transition from .cn to .com is natural. For example, CNPC can upgrade from CNPC.com.cn to CNPC .com (parked).

Many companies still fail to understand the importance of brand matching. Instead, they add a prefix or suffice to their brand when selecting a domain. Some examples are Ruyi operating from ChinaRuyi.com and JCET from JCETglobal.com. Ruyi .com (does not resolve) and JCET .com (for sale) would be the desired upgrades.

Sometimes, brand-matching may not be obvious. Look at COSCO Shipping. You may think COSCOShipping.com is brand-matching. However, the company is actually referred to as “COSCO” so COSCO .com would be better. Similar examples are AnsteelGroup.com (Ansteel) and SAICmotor.com (SAIC).

The good news for investors from the west is that you don’t have to own Pinyin domains in order to sell to China. 36% of the companies use English-based domains and only 8% use Pinyin domains. Examples of English-based brands are HiSense, Legend, and Goldwind.

So, you may want to study the list and see if you own any domains which just happen to lie in the upgrade path of some of the companies. Domains that can serve as upgrades are very valuable.

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MMX returns £58.0 million to shareholders after GoDaddy deal

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These 70 large companies can benefit from upgrading their domains

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