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GoDaddy’s Uniregistry acquisition was for less than $200 million

by — Domain Registrars 12 Comments

Annual report shows that deal was for less than $200 million.

Picture of GoDaddy and Uniregistry Logos

We now have a better idea of how much GoDaddy paid to acquire Uniregistry and Frank Schilling’s domain name portfolio.

GoDaddy issued its annual report today. The report states:

In February 2020, we entered into agreements for two acquisitions with an aggregate purchase price of approximately $196.9 million, of which $149.1 million has been paid in cash. The remaining $47.8 million will be paid upon receipt of certain regulatory approvals and satisfaction of other customary closing conditions as well as upon the expiration of the contractual holdback period.

It’s unclear if both of these acquisitions are Uniregistry or if it includes another company. GoDaddy also acquired South African social content startup Over and that is included in the total.

What GoDaddy’s acquisition of Uniregistry means for domain investors

by — Domain Registrars 13 Comments

Less competition for expired domains, but less competition for registrars, too.

Image with GoDaddy and Uniregistry logos, and the words "Deal Implications"

Earlier today, GoDaddy announced that it is acquiring Uniregistry and Frank Schilling’s domain name portfolio. Here are some ways this will impact the domain name industry.

Less competition for expired domains: Let’s start with some good news for domain name investors: Frank will no longer be bidding against you in expired domain auctions. He confirmed to me that he has no plans to rebuild a domain portfolio. “I’ve already built the best portfolio in the world.” The absence of one major buyer can have a big impact on bid prices.

Less competition in the registrar space: Uniregistry is very small compared to GoDaddy, but it pushed GoDaddy to improve its service for domain name investors. GoDaddy will incorporate some of Uniregistry’s innovations, but whenever a competitor is taken out of the equation, it takes some heat off of the market leader.

A buying opportunity: Once GoDaddy incorporates Frank’s inventory into its own, most of the domains will have ‘buy now’ prices and they are likely more affordable than what Frank would have sold the domains for. This gives investors and end users an opportunity to buy domains.

More expired inventory on GoDaddy: This is a loss for Dynadot. Now that Uniregistry is part of GoDaddy, its expired domain inventory will (eventually) flow through GoDaddy Auctions.

Good talent on the market: GoDaddy is retaining Uniregistry’s employees. But whenever there’s a corporate takeover like this, some employees will decide that the new environment isn’t right for them. This may mean some talented and experienced registrar and domain aftermarket people will be available to hire.

Less data/more data: I’ll miss getting Uniregistry’s weekly list of top 20 domain sales. GoDaddy doesn’t report individual sales. But GoDaddy includes sales in its comps for domain appraisals. So less data will be readily available but GoDaddy will have more data to crunch and provide to domain investors.

GoDaddy acquires Uniregistry and Frank Schilling’s domain portfolio

by — Domain Registrars 52 Comments

Major acquisition shakes up domain name investor landscape.

Picture of GoDaddy and Uniregistry Logos

GoDaddy (NYSE: GDDY) is acquiring the Uniregistry registrar and marketplace, Frank Schilling’s Name Administration domain name portfolio, and other associated assets for an undisclosed amount. [Update: it was less than $200 million.] It is not buying Uniregistry’s top level domain name business.

Uniregistry employees will stay on with the company, and Uniregistry offices in Grand Cayman and Manchester will continue to operate.

“We’re bringing in the products, the talent, and everything that made Uni what it is,” GoDaddy VP of Aftermarket Paul Nicks told Domain Name Wire.

“This is a big day for our industry,” Schilling added.

Schilling built a valuable portfolio of around 375,000 domain names starting at the turn of the century. When many people dismissed the value of domains after the dot.com bubble burst, Schilling saw an opportunity to pick up vast numbers of domains that others let expire.

That inventory will become part of GoDaddy’s portfolio of domains, which will now number about 1 million names.

Schilling gave a litany of reasons for the sale but he said it was not a forced sale due to his recent divorce.

“I thought it was a really fair purchase,” he said. “It makes sense. There’s a value to the portfolio, and then there’s the time value of money. I would absolutely, over a period of time, earn back the entirety and still have a very valuable asset at the end. But doing a present value discount and factoring in what I could do with that capital, it made sense to do this deal. At my age, crystallizing the value that we’ve created here and putting it to work in other ways makes sense.”

After building his large domain portfolio, Schilling turned his attention to building a registrar and marketplace to cater to domain name investors. Ultimately, it was going to take much more effort and capital to compete with GoDaddy, though.

“We’ve been able to pull off a lot with a very small team,” Schilling said. “It’s built to scale with a much greater userbase. If you bolt it onto Godaddy, merge it, all of the things that make it so great with all of the Godaddy platform behind it…what a combination.”

“You can go big or go home,” Schilling added. “And I’ve made a cognizant decision to go home. I’m going to focus on where I think I can add value.”

Schilling will now focus on the registry side of the business. In addition to owning top level domains such as .link and .tattoo, Schilling operates a registry platform and works with other registries.

Schilling has no plans to rebuild his domain name portfolio.

Nicks said that this is more than just an acquisition of domain names and domains under management.

“The [Uniregistry] registrar experience will become our domain investor experience,” he said. “Today, you’re toggling between [advanced and regular views]. I want a customer to be able to toggle right into that investor experience.”

The deal is expected to close in Q2.

Here’s what this deal means for domain investors.

Frank Schilling wins cybersquatting dispute

by — Policy & Law 7 Comments

Indian insurance company falls short in UDRP.

Blue image with the letters UDRP

Frank Schilling’s Name Administration has successfully defended the domain name CareHealthInsurance.com in a UDRP.

The three-person World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) panel determined that the Complainant, Religare Health Insurance Company Limited in India, did not show that Name Administration registered the domain name in bad faith. The Complainant had a high bar to overcome because care, health, and insurance are terms commonly used together.

Obviously, the juxtaposition of the words is odd. But the panel noted that the Complainant had a high bar to show that its name had taken on secondary meaning, especially since it operates in India and Name Administration is in Grand Cayman.

The health insurance company says it launched its first product in 2012, which is before Name Administration acquired the name. But it says it didn’t register similar domain names, such as carehealthinsurance.in and carehealthinsurance.co.in, until 2018. Both of those domains resolve to registrar holding pages.

One of the panelists determined that this was a case of reverse domain name hijacking.

John Berryhill represented Name Administration. Saikrishna & Associates represented Religare Health Insurance.

Frank Schilling successfully defends OceanBreeze.com domain in UDRP

by — Policy & Law 5 Comments

Company filed cybersquatting claim after failing to buy domain.

JC Global wanted the domain name OceanBreeze.com for its line of air conditioners…but didn’t want to pay the asking price.

Frank Schilling, with the help of attorney John Berryhill, has defended his company’s domain name OceanBreeze.com in a UDRP.

The case was filed by JC Global. That company sells air conditioners and dehumidifiers under the Ocean Breeze brand.

JC Global’s case was dead on arrival. The domain name was registered well before JC Global got a trademark for Ocean Breeze. It’s also a fairly generic domain, and the parked page for the domain showed ads related to cruises.

This was clearly a “Plan B” UDRP filing. JC Global inquired about buying the domain name but wouldn’t meet the asking price.

The National Arbitration Forum panel did not consider reverse domain name hijacking.