Domain News

As per an article by the South Florida Business Journal, the parent company of Foreclosure.com, FFS Data, has filed for Chapter 11 reorganisation on December 23rd. The company cites $9.1 million in assets versus $27.5 of debt and $15.7 million income so far.

Aside from Foreclosure.com, the company also runs related portals under the names of Foreclosure.com, ForeclosureFreesearch.com and ForeclosureDatabase.com. On July 22nd of 2008 the company, lead by Brad Geisen, had announced that they were purchasing Property.com from Rick Schwartz for an undisclosed amount, but yet the negotiations were broken off in October 2009 since the lawyers were not able to agree on terms for the deal, according to a blog post by self-proclaimed “Domain King” Rick Schwartz.

[Thanks to our Friends at ExpertName for the tip.]

Original post by Frank Michlick

For all you late night partying domainers, there’s some good news coming from the TRAFFIC show. Rick Schwartz announced today that the TRAFFIC domain show in New York will be adding a new “Night Pass”.  The $995 pass allows attendees to be at the auctions, night parties and the trade show floor after 4pm.

“We know besides the 300+ people that will register for T.R.A.F.F.I.C. in New York there will be lots of additional folks that will be in the city during TRAFFIC and would like to attend but are “Night Owls” and don’t want to go to the seminars and meals and still pay full pop to get in. So Mike Fiol suggested a new NIGHT TRAFFIC PASS. “

We’ve felt TRAFFIC was sorely lacking some sort of “ala carte” pass for a while now.  Many attendees come to the shows to have meetings with other attendees and don’t tend to sit in on the conferences, browse the show floor or  enjoy any meals.  There’s attendees who just want to watch the auction and there’s likely attendees who don’t want any of the late night partying either (though likely very few).  I think I’ve had 2 meals on-site at the last domain shows that I attended, yet my admission was paying for all that food.  I personally wouldn’t mind seeing a daily pass or one without meals as options, but this new idea is a step in the right direction.

Kudos to Rick for listening to feedback and making this available. I know quite a few people who fall in to this demographic, but they may have already bought their ticket.

(c) 2009 DomainNameNews.com

Upcoming Domain Industry Events, Conferences & Auctions

Original post by Adam Strong

Rick Schwartz and Howard Neu of TRAFFIC Conference have announced a new partnership with RickLatona.com to take the conference around the world - including an expanded 2010 schedule that will visit Las Vegas, Amsterdam, Toronto, Reykjavik (Iceland), South Florida, and Hong Kong.

“We want to break down the walls of the domain industry and bring in folks from allied industries and we have a formula and a team that can now make that happen,” Rick Schwartz said on RicksBlog.com. “By the end of next year it will be evident how big this change is and everyone reading this will benefit by the reach out program we are about to engage in. Nothing happens overnight, however we have set a new and exciting course and you will become the beneficiary of those changes.”

The aggressive plan will bring TRAFFIC to North America, Europe, and Asia in 2010 and there are other plans in the works to include South America in the near future.

“Together, as a team, we will be presenting six fantastic shows next year,” explained Rick Latona on his blog. “Due to my investment of capital in new auction software (currently under development), sales people who will be working the end-user market and other auction related activities that will bring substantial additional income to domainers over time, I became convinced that the auction company and trade show company need to be closely aligned and essentially partners.

It is our intention to grow upon the brand which started the industry events we know and love today. For that reason, we are doubling the size of the company for maximum exposure on a global scale.”

[via RicksBlog.com]

(c) 2009 DomainNameNews.com

Upcoming Domain Industry Events, Conferences & Auctions

Original post by Chad Kettner

Rick Schwartz is giving away a free ticket to TRAFFIC New York City (October 26-29, 2009) to whoever correctly guesses the future sale price of SmartPhones.com, which will be sold during the Rick Latona live auction at TRAFFIC Silicon Valley on Tuesday, April 28 between 3:30-6:00pm PDT.

SmartPhones.com has the ridiculously low reserve price of only $50,000 - and some domainers are already submitting guesses in the million-dollar range (the highest guess so far is $2.5 million). Visit RicksBlog.com to submit your guess today. You must post your guess on Rick’s blog by April 26 to qualify

The last “arm-chair domainer” contest by DomainConsultant’s Domain Madness gave away $1000 cash and received hundreds of submissions.  The Domain Madness winner will be announced at the Geo Domain auction on Saturday.

[via RicksBlog.com]

Disclaimer :  Adam Strong is a consultant with DomainConsultant.com and Editor for DomainNameNews.com

(c) 2009 DomainNameNews.com

Upcoming Domain Industry Events, Conferences & Auctions

Original post by Chad Kettner

Rick Schwartz, self-proclaimed “Domain King” has just announced that he sold Candy.com for $3 million USD. In addition to the sale he receives a revenue share of sales generated through the website on an ongoing basis. Additional details of the deal are to be published later according to a post on RicksBlog.com.

(c) 2009 DomainNameNews.com

Upcoming Domain Industry Events, Conferences & Auctions

Original post by Frank Michlick

Rick Schwartz, self-proclaimed “Domain King” has just announced that he is selling Candy.com for $3 million USD. In addition to the sale he receives a revenue share of sales generated through the website on an ongoing basis. Additional details of the deal are to be published later according to a post on RicksBlog.com.

(c) 2009 DomainNameNews.com

Upcoming Domain Industry Events, Conferences & Auctions

Original post by Frank Michlick

Rick Schwartz, also know as the “DomainKing” has partnered with Gigya and launched a website for Widgets.com. Rick had previously tried to sell the domain name in an eBay auction. The site serves acts as a widget directory to promote Gigya’s Wildfire product, which was created to make it easier for users to install widgets across 60 different platforms, such as blogs, social media sites, start pages and desktop applications. Wildfire reaches over 180 million unique widget viewers worldwide and tracks billions of widget impressions each month.

[via Press Release]

(c) 2009 DomainNameNews.com

Upcoming Domain Industry Events, Conferences & Auctions

Original post by Frank Michlick

The Kentucky Appeals Court has ruled in a 2-to-1 majority decision against the Commonwealth of Kentucky in its attempt to seize 141 valuable gambling domains, overturning the previous decision by Judge Thomas Wingate of the Kentucky Circuit Court and finally putting an end to Governor Steve Beshar’s efforts to shut down any online gambling websites which could be accessed within the state.

Judge Michelle M. Keller, in her majority decision, found that domain names were never classified as illegal gambling devices by Kentucky law, as had been claimed, and therefore the Commonwealth could not rightfully proceed with its seizure:

“(I)t stretches credulity to conclude that a series of numbers, or Internet address, can be said to constitute a ‘machine or any mechanical or other device…designed and manufactured primarily for use in connection with gambling,” Judge Keller wrote. “We are thus convinced that the trial court clearly erred in concluding that the domain names can be construed to be gambling devices.”

Judge Jeff S. Taylor, also in the majority, added that the Commonwealth of Kentucky could not seek a civil forfeiture based on a criminal statute unless there was a criminal proceeding, which there was not. Since this failed to happen, the Commonwealth was overstepping its boundaries by trying to seize property which was outside its jurisdiction.

Judge Micheal Caperton, in his dissenting opinion, stated that Internet domain names played a role in the larger mechanism for gambling - which included computers and Internet service - and thus could be considered a “gambling device” by Kentucky law.

The 2-to-1 decision immediately prohibits the seizure of the 141 domain names by the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

“We are very happy with the court’s ruling today,” said Joe Brennan Jr., chairman of the Interactive Media Entertainment & Gaming Association (iMEGA). “The judges clearly agreed with our interpretation of the law and, thankfully, this reverses what would have been a terrible precedent for our country and the Internet.”

In September 2008, Kentucky seized the long list of domain names - including  PokerStars.com, FullTiltPoker.com, BodogLife.com, GoldenPalace.com, Bet21.com, DoylesRoom.com and Rick Schwartz’ IndianCasino.com - stating that the domains were “being used in connection with illegal gambling activity” within the state.

The seizure created an uproar in the domain community, with the Internet Commerce Association (ICA) immediately addressing the situation, GoDaddy refusing to hand over the domains registered through them, and the website owners appealing the decision.

But against all logic, Judge Thomas Wingate of the Kentucky Circuit Court dismissed all objections from the representatives of the 141 domain names and stated that Kentucky did have the right to seize the domains since they were illegal devices used to facilitate gambling within the state borders.

The decision, which also gave domain owners a second chance to maintain control of their domains if they geo-blocked Kentuckians from accessing the websites, didn’t sit well with either side as Governor Steve Beshar didn’t believe the “get out of jail free” card was warranted and the iMEGA filed a motion to stay, claiming Kentucky didn’t have the right to seize domains regardless of any geo-blocking efforts.

In the end, the courts finally sided with the defendants - a monumental decision which will provide added value and security to gambling domain names and websites for now and the foreseeable future.

“We are humbled by this decision and by the overwhelming support received from Internet businesses and free speech organizations everywhere,” said Jeff Ifrah, an attorney representing the Interactive Gaming Council. “The Court of Appeals has now corrected a fundamental misunderstanding by the trial judge in this proceeding of the nature of the Internet and the legality of online poker in Kentucky.”

[via CardPlayer.com and iMEGA]

(c) 2009 DomainNameNews.com

Buy Category Killer Domain Names for the best price possible.

Original post by Chad Kettner

Tucows has announced that it is laying off roughly 15% of its staff in a restructuring move to deal with the macro economic environment and unexpected changes in the industry.

Elliot Noss, the President and CEO of Tucows, explains more on the company’s website:

“We decided to take this step because of the uncertainty of overall economic conditions and the fact that our performance has been impacted by a number of unanticipated challenges during the first nine months of the year, including advertising revenues being dampened by the weakness in the economy and by reduced payouts to the domain channel by Google and Yahoo, which is in turn impacting domain portfolio advertising revenues and especially bulk domain portfolio sales.

I have also never seen a macro economic environment like we are seeing now. I am old enough to have lived through a number of down cycles but there are elements of this one that make it unique and that will take time to work through. […]

As we look forward to 2009, I believe we have a strong team who will continue to innovate, to work efficiently and maintain our positive momentum. I fundamentally believe that our strength comes from our people and I look forward to working hard together over the coming weeks and months to exceed even our own expectations.”

In somewhat related news, the World Association of Domain Name Developers Inc. has voted to revoke the WADND Registrar Seal of Approval awarded to Tucows since the company, as Rick Schwartz explained in an email to DNN, “has continually chosen stockholder interest over domainer interest.” This decision was made easier with the recent launching of YummyNames, a site for Tucows to sell expired domains they held from their customers for failing to renew in time.

[via DomainNameWire]

(c) 2008 DomainNameNews.com

Visit our Calendar of Domain Industry Events.

Original post by Chad Kettner

Tucows (AMEX:TCX, TSX: TC) has just announced the launch of their YummyNames site, which lists domains from their portfolio of names for sale online. The company has before sold individual and groups of names directly and via various brokers and is now formalizing some of their offering under a new brand.

“YummyNames, the public face of our domain portfolio service group, provides an additional means by which to realize the value of our domain portfolio assets to drive continued growth for the Company,” said Elliot Noss, President and CEO, Tucows.

There are “ten thousands of names” listed on the site; Tucows’ portfolio is estimated to contain more than 70,000 domain names. Sample names listed for sale are countryrock.com, divorced.com, lemons.com, listener.com, mygarden.com, thepub.com, tool.com and veggies.com. While the site stats that “These premium domains are priced starting at $500 USD”, it appears that none of the names has actually listed a fixed price at this point. Names are being offered for purchase or lease. The site lists previous clients such as: Bell Mobility, CanWest Global Communications, EMI Music, General Motors, Grand & Toy, Harlequin Enterprises, Johnson & Johnson,  Microsoft, Nestle and RBC Royal Bank.

The Tucows domain portfolio mostly consists of names that were not renewed by registrants, as well as domain names that were purchased as part of the Netidentity acquisition. Some of the names now listed on the YummyNames website were part of those names that were accidentally auctioned off on AfterNIC in June of this year when the auctions were canceled after they had received pre-bids their conclusion.

Tucows joins a growing list of companies shedding the bulky portfolios and liquidating their domain name assets. Fabulous began selling off their expiring names through Namejet earlier this month, LiveCurrent announced the sale of domain assets yesterday, ppc company Oversee.net has sold portions of their portfolio recently, and domainer Rick Schwartz, who typically is not a liquidator put some of his domains up for sale sold a good chunk of his inventory at the last TRAFFIC auction as well.

[via Press Release]

(c) 2008 DomainNameNews.com

Visit our Calendar of Domain Industry Events.

Original post by Frank Michlick

Rick Schwartz DomainKing Bobble Head

Conference attendees at the Targeted T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conference received one of 250 Rick Schwartz DomainKing bobbleheads. The other 250 bobbleheads of the batch are available for sale at bobbleheads.com, which is operated by domainer Warren Royal.

(c) 2008 DomainNameNews.com

Domain Convergence, October 6-8, 2008, Niagara Falls

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Original post by Adam Strong

Rick Schwartz DomainKing Bobble Head

Conference attendees at the Targeted T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conference received one of 250 Rick Schwartz DomainKing bobbleheads. The other 250 bobbleheads of the batch are available for sale at bobbleheads.com, which is operated by domainer Warren Royal.

(c) 2008 DomainNameNews.com

Domain Convergence, October 6-8, 2008, Niagara Falls

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Original post by Adam Strong

The Commonwealth of Kentucky has issued a seize order to have 141 domain names taken from their current registrants. The seizure was placed because the “domains were being used in connection with illegal gambling activity.”

There were a number of popular gambling sites listed for seizure including PokerStars.com, FullTiltPoker.com, BodogLife.com, GoldenPalace.com, Bet21.com, DoylesRoom.com and also Rick Schwartz’ IndianCasino.com. The domain names were to be immediately transferred to an account of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, although the websites will continue to run as usual until a court hearing later this month.

It seems highly unlikely this move will withstand legal challenge in court, but if it does it opens the door to all kinds of strange possibilities. If any state can claim any domains that don’t abide by local laws, it seems inevitable that these types of websites will simply be moved to a foreign registrar while remaining as profitable as ever.

Another interesting point is that some of the domains are simply parked websites with no recent history of taking any bets.  Head on over to The Domains for more information on the story and a full list of the seized domains.

[via The Domains]

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Original post by Chad Kettner

The News of Our Demise Has Been Greatly Exaggerated

Rick Schwartz announced in an email a few days ago that the upcoming TRAFFIC show would be auctioning sponsorship positions. My gut reaction to reading this email was that it had a ring of desperation. I posted on a forum to see if I was alone. As you could expect from any good forum post about domains, and especially one involving Rick Schwartz, the topic got sidetracked. I let it rest a day or so. . . . It must have just been me.

A day or so later I received an email and later an IM from individuals who had not seen my posts. I guess I wasn’t alone and the overall sense I got from these others was that they feel that the thought of auctioning sponsorships showed a sign that the TRAFFIC conference is in some trouble. Add to the mix other off-the-cuff comments I’ve seen/heard about the show being in Brooklyn and not Manhattan, the recent low attendance at the Florida TRAFFIC East show, and TrafficZ (the main sponosor) and Oversee.net (former main sponsor) now operating competing events (DomainRoundtable and DomainFest respectively). It does make one wonder I suppose.
So why not ask the man himself ! I emailed Rick to get the low-down. Maybe we’re all crazy.

I wrote :

Hi Rick
A few industry vets have emailed me with unprovoked comments regarding the auctioning of sponsorships. They see it to be a sign that TRAFFIC is struggling . Could you comment on that viewpoint ?

Rick replied :

“We are just opening things up just like we did with the new multiple auctions. Competition creates a better product and what may be good for one company can not stand in the way of what is good for the entire industry. There was a lot of pressure not to do that as you might imagine. But we have to do what is best for domainers not what is best for individual companies and sponsors. The results as always will be quite evident and visible for the entire industry to see once we get to New York. No question that domainers welcome this decision and it will change the game as we know it. Plus it’s gonna be a LOT of fun!

The idea for opening up the sponsorships actually came from Dan Warner in a conversation a week or so ago. He suggested that we auction off the auction slots to the highest bidder in future shows. I just took his suggestion and applied it in a slightly different direction. Bidding for sponsorships that just started yesterday is already very active and new faces, companies and solutions are coming into the industry because of it. That is not in the best interest of the status quo. There are those that have taken our business and traffic for granted and the competition we are going to introduce in New York will challenge the business as usual mentality. Should sponsors take notice? You betcha!”

Although he did avoid the question about TRAFFIC struggling, I appreciate Rick’s candor on the topic and look forward to seeing how the bidding on sponsorships goes. I think shaking things up is always good and this business definitely could benefit from fresh ideas and sponsors can open that door. Between the multiple auctions, auctioning sponsorships and a new location, this will definitely be a show worth writing about. I hope these new ideas, new auctions and new sponsors give TRAFFIC and the industry another solid showing. At least one of us from Domain Name News (that’s me) will be at the show next month, so watch for our posts and look for me there.

(c) 2008 DomainNameNews.com

Domain Convergence, October 6-8, 2008, Niagara Falls

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Original post by Adam Strong

DomainNameNews has learned that Fabulous.com and TRAFFIC will be announcing later today that they are donating all profits from the forthcoming TRAFFIC Down Under domain conference to the Internet Commerce Association (ICA).

Fabulous seems to be putting together a show with a ton of activities and events for attendees in a beautiful location. It’s clear by this gesture that the company has not entered into the “conference business” to seek a profit from attendees and sponsors.

Fabulous partnered with TRAFFIC conference operators Rick Schwartz and Howard Neu to put together this conference.  The Down Under event is scheduled to take place November 18th - 20th at the Sheraton Mirage Resort in Queensland, Australia.  Tickets for the show can be purchased at the TRAFFIC Down Under website.

(c) 2008 DomainNameNews.com

Domain Convergence, October 6-8, 2008, Niagara Falls

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Original post by Adam Strong