Whether you are looking to privately acquire a domain name or sell a domain name you already own, it is essential to have the contact information for prospective buyers. With GDPR in place, finding good contact information for a company can be challenging.

I have found that many consumer facing websites do not make it easy to find executive contact information. I presume many executives do not want to receive consumer complaint emails – or perhaps even more accurately – companies have expensive customer management and customer support teams in place that are better equipped to deal with consumer issues. These teams are not necessarily well equipped to discuss company owned domain names or potential domain name acquisitions. Contact emails about domain names may go through, but many may never be seen by decision makers or even returned.

One place to find good contact information is within filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) or similar oversight organizations in other countries. Oftentimes, these filings contain the names, email addresses, and phone numbers for corporate decision makers. These people → Read More

Negotiating to close a domain name sale is one of the more interesting (and perhaps exciting) aspects of domain investing. Engaging an active prospect and trying to work out a mutually agreeable deal never gets old for me.

On the other hand, trying to get a lead to respond can be frustrating. This is especially so when I have been able to identify the lead and think the domain name would be the perfect fit for them or their company. I generally respond to the person via the channel they inquired, but if I don’t receive a response after a couple of attempts, I may try to connect via phone or even LinkedIn.

I am curious how many times others follow up with their inbound inquiry leads before giving up and considering the lead to be dead. You are welcome to share your thoughts in the comment section as well.

One of the neat things about Domaining Europe was that the conference regularly changed locations in Europe. The conference, which was founded by Dietmar Stefitz, rebranded as NamesCon Europe, but the tradition of changing locations seems to have stuck. Last night, NamesCon announced the 2019 NamesCon Europe conference will be held in Lisbon, Portugal:

NamesCon Europe 2019 will be taking place in Lisbon, Portugal! Ticket sales for the event starts tomorrow. Make sure you keep an eye out for the announcement. #namescon #nceurope19 pic.twitter.com/gQEzybruUT

— NamesCon (@NamesCon) June 21, 2018

I reached out to NamesCon organizers to get more information, and although the dates have not yet been set, conferences tickets are now on sale. NamesCon’s Terri Potratz told me “tickets are refundable up to 30 days before the event.” I was also told that the event will be held in June of 2019, although the exact date and location in Lisbon have not been finalized just yet. The ticket pre-sale → Read More

Another UDRP was filed against a valuable three letter .com domain name at the World Intellectual Property Organization, and the decision was just published on the WIPO website. The three member WIPO panel found in favor of the respondent, and CLH.com will remain with the domain owner.

From my perspective, most UDRP panels have been consistent in finding that valuable LLL .com domain names are fair game for domain investors to own and buy. There are typically many different entities that could conceivably feel entitled to a particular acronym domain name, but that should indicate the generic nature. The panel mentioned this in the decision:

“On the evidence, clearly the acronym CLH, whether as a registered trademark or potentially having common law trademark status by association with the names of companies or other entities, and whether alone or in combination, is in wide use as the identifier of numerous business and other entities. Each of those users of the acronym CLH is a potential customer for a domain name comprising or incorporating CLH, some of which the Respondent has shown to be already in use, including for example <clh.hu>, <clh.com.au> and <clh.org>.”

The panel also noted that the price alone is not evidence of bad faith: → Read More

Yesterday, I wrote about the sale of Yellow.com. Unfortunately, Andrew Rosener could not reveal the sale price for the domain name, and I did not hear back from the registrant. I would imagine that unless the buyer decides to open up about the purchase or needs to mention the price in some sort of legal filing, this sale will remain private.

Today’s poll question asks what you think the Yellow.com sale price was.

Web.com issued a press release this morning announcing that it’s board of directors approved an agreement to be acquired for $25.00 per share, which amounts to approximately $2 billion USD. The buyer is an affiliate of a private equity firm called Siris Capital Group, LLC. Web.com is a publicly traded company and the deal will need to be approved by shareholders.

Web.com is permitted to seek out a better offer. From the press release:

“Web.com may solicit alternative acquisition proposals from third parties during a “go-shop” period from the date of the agreement until August 5, 2018. There is no guarantee that this process will result in a superior proposal, and the agreement provides Siris with a customary right to match a superior proposal. Web.com does not intend to disclose developments with respect to the solicitation process unless and until the company determines such disclosure is appropriate.”

While Web.com is primarily consumer facing, the company has a major domain investor presence. The company either → Read More