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GoDaddy loses first UDRP from Marchex portfolio acquisition

by — Domain Registrars 9 Comments

No one responded to the dispute.

GoDaddy has lost its first UDRP from the portfolio it acquired from Marchex in April.

The company didn’t respond to a UDRP filed by Dairyland Midwest, Inc. d/b/a AgVision for the domain name AgVision.com.

When the UDRP was filed last month, World Intellectual Property Organization sent a notice of the dispute to all contacts on the domain name. That included an @archeo.com email address as well as sales@nnamefind.com. Although the latter email address appears to be a typo, it’s also owned by the NameFind subsidiary.

The name was listed for sale for $5,199.

GoDaddy is no stranger to being on the receiving end of UDRPs, but it’s been a while. It lost a bunch of cases when it was running its Standard Tactics company to pick up expiring domains.

Had your eyes on a domain at Marchex? Might want to give GoDaddy a call

by — Domain Sales 6 Comments

GoDaddy pricing the domain names at a more reasonable level.

One of the reasons GoDaddy acquired Marchex’s domain name portfolio (which was recently being sold under the Archeo brand) was that Marchex had steep prices on the domain names.

A friend tried to buy a domain name last year. He was initially told it would cost something like $30,000. Marchex later offered to sell it for something like $10,000, but my friend had moved on to a different domain.

GoDaddy said it would attach prices to many of the domains and sell them for prices that make them more liquid. We’re starting to see evidence of this.

RobbiesBlog.com has a story describing a case in which it bought a domain name quoted for $20,000 at Marchex for just $3,000 at GoDaddy. Based on a description of the negotiations, it appears that GoDaddy isn’t using past quotes/information from Archeo when negotiating sales.

GoDaddy also sold Beijing.com. I assume GoDaddy was willing to negotiate on this domain more than Marchex was.

So here’s a tip: if there’s a domain at Marchex that you had your eyes on previously, give GoDaddy a call and see if you can strike a good deal now.

GoDaddy acquires Marchex’s domain name portfolio for $28 million

by — Domain Sales 6 Comments

An in-depth look at GoDaddy’s purchase of over 200,000 domain names and what it means for domain name investors.

GoDaddy Archeo domain name

GoDaddy has acquired Marchex’s Archeo domain name portfolio for $28.1 million.

GoDaddy (NYSE: GDDY) has acquired about 200,000 domain names from Marchex (NASDAQ: MCHX) for $28.1 million, plus a potential earnout.

Marchex has owned the portfolio for a long time, and it includes most of the 100,000 domains it acquired from domain name investor Yun Ye for $164 million in 2005. The company didn’t focus on selling its domain names until 2012, when it created a separate domain-focused business called Archeo. The plan was to spin Archeo off as its own publicly traded company, but it canceled these plans in 2013.

GoDaddy SVP and GM of Domains Mike McLaughlin said GoDaddy looked at the domain portfolio as a unique opportunity. Click here to continue reading…

Marchex CEO steps down

by — Services 0 Comments

A new boss at Marchex and Q4 earnings released.

Marchex reported earnings today, and also announced that long time CEO Russell Horowitz has stepped down. Company co-founder Pete Christothoulou has taken over the top post.

The company, which derives the bulk of its revenue from performance advertising in which customers pay for phone calls, had a rocky 2014 after losing the bulk of its business from its biggest client. The stock trades for about $4.00 now, well below its 52-week high of $12.84.

Marchex also owns a large portfolio of domain names that it monetizes and sells through the Archeo Domains brand. The Archeo business reported revenue of $3.0 million for Q4 2014, and $14.5 million for the year. Both of these numbers are down from their prior respective periods.

Marchex sells $1.6 million in domain names in Q4

by — Domain Sales 0 Comments

Marchex’s Archeo division continues to sell domains at fairly high prices.

ArcheoMarchex reported its fourth quarter earnings after the bell today. It included sales results from Archeo, its domain name division.

Archeo sold 262 domain names for a total of $1.6 million last quarter. That’s about double how much it sold last year in the same quarter.

It’s also a high average selling price of $6,100 per domain name.

Averages can be misleading, but I suspect Archeo’s median is also higher than what you see at Afternic and Sedo.

While the company is coming down a bit on its minimum pricing, Archeo still seems to be focused on higher average selling prices rather than volume.

There are some domains priced below $1,000 in its fixed price inventory. But only relative few.

Higher prices means more margin when a domain sells, but lumpier sales. It will be interesting to watch Archeo’s domain sales going forward.