Domain Industry News

This afternoon, DAN.com and Media Options announced a partnership that will allow DAN sellers to have Media Options broker domain names on their behalf. This is a nice option for DAN sellers who want to utilize the platform to sell their domain names but would prefer to have their make offer deals negotiated by a domain broker rather than on their own.

The press release announcing the deal with commentary from both parties is shared below, and I am able to share additional details about the mechanics of how this will work.

According to a press release I received this afternoon, Donuts has reached an agreement to acquire the Afilias registry business. Afilias operates a large number of domain name extensions, and the company also provides back-end services to operators of domain name extensions. Terms of the deal were not disclosed by either party, but the deal is expected to close in December of this year.

With hundreds of domain name extensions under its control, Donuts is already the largest operator of domain name extensions. The acquisition of Afilias makes sense for the privately held company, as it will bring more extensions under its roof and will also move it into the back-end management for ccTLD extensions like .ME and .VC. As far as I recall, I do not believe Donuts operates in the ccTLD space yet.

Media Options, the domain brokerage founded by Andrew Rosener, announced that it hired Jonathan Tenenbaum as its Chief Operating Officer. Jonathan had been working as Chief Privacy Officer at Web.com since October of last year. Jonathan is probably most well known in the domain investment space from his time as General Manager of NameJet, which is owned and operated by Web.com.

The press release I received is below, but the part that caught my attention was from Jonathan’s quote:

Bill Sweetman, founder of Name Ninja, has been involved in the domain industry for many years. I first met Bill when he worked at Tucows, managing the company’s YummyNames domain name portfolio. At Name Ninja, Bill works primarily with businesses seeking to buy domain names. His industry experience is why Bill is one of the few people who regularly moderates conference panels and discussions.

Bill shared that he was the featured guest on a startup-focused podcast called The Startup Stack, which is hosted by Louis Beryl. The discussion centered around choosing a domain name and acquiring a domain name. I have not had time to listen to the podcast, but here are the primary topics that were discussed:

I was reading the New York Post this afternoon, when I came across a photo of a person I recognize, Mike Zapolin, known to most as “Zappy.” The article briefly mentions his domain name investment past, but the focus of the Page Six article is his current status as “‘psychedelic concierge’ to the stars.”

From the article: