I want to highlight a generous offer in a tweet from 101Domain that comes in the wake of the terrorist attacks in Paris:
Our thoughts and prayers go out to the citizens of Paris.
Starting immediately, 101domain will be donating all… https://t.co/PGL7u9x6bO
— 101domain (@101domain) November 18, 2015
The company linked to a Facebook post announcing that
George Kirikos is reporting that LasVegas.com sold in 2005 in a deal valued at nearly $90 million over 35 years. The source of his tweet is a Vegas.com SEC filing from earlier this year that discusses the purchase agreement for LasVegas.com dating to 2005.
$90 million https://t.co/3yiwcbH3ld deal. See Note 7 (p13) of SEC filing at https://t.co/zxQ0x7c86c for payment schedule from 2005 to 2040.
β George Kirikos (@GeorgeKirikos) November 6, 2015
Here are some of the details from the SEC filing that spells out the value of this deal:
“In June 2005, VEGAS.com, LLC entered into an agreement for the purchase of LasVegas.com. The agreement specified that a $12,000,000, one-time payment be made upon execution of the agreement along with monthly payments of approximately $83,000 for 36 months, $125,000 for the next 60 months, and then $208,000 for the next 36 months. Per the terms of the agreement, after June 30, 2016, following the 132 initial monthly payments, VEGAS.com, LLC in its sole discretion may terminate the agreement and forfeit the domain name. If VEGAS.com, LLC chooses not to terminate the agreement, they will continue making the monthly payments of approximately $208,000 until June 30, 2040, at which time the seller will transfer the domain name to VEGAS.com, LLC without further payment or cost to VEGAS.com, LLC.”
There are more details about the transaction within the SEC filing if you are interested in reading more about the deal and its value.
I exchanged a couple of emails with George this morning, and he shared the math that shows the value of this deal:
ZDNet published an article with commentary from Dr. Paul Vixie, who offers a pretty scathing assessment of the new gTLD program. According to Paul Vixie’s Wikipedia page, Dr. Vixie is described as “an American Internet pioneer.” ZDNet described Dr. Vixie as “a pioneer of the internet’s domain name system (DNS).” Currently, Dr. Vixie is CEO of a company called Farsight Security.
Below is an excerpt from the article with comments from Mr. Vixie. I think it’s worth reading the article in its entirety when you have an opportunity.
“I think it is a money grab. My own view is that ICANN functions as a regulator, and that as a regulator it has been captured by the industry that they are regulating. I think that there was no end-user demand whatsoever for more so-called DNS extensions, [or] global generic top-level domains (gTLDs),” he said.
Due diligence is an important aspect of buying a domain name in the aftermarket. Whoisology is a tool that allows people to easily search for public information found in Whois data. I was told that Whoisology was created to help people perform due diligence on domain acquisitions, and it is now a robust tool that can be used in many ways. I learned that a revamped Whoisology website was just relaunched today.
I had a look around the new site before it went live, and it looks pretty robust. One of the nicest aspects of the website is that many of the useful tools can be accessed for free. There are other aspects of Whoisology that will be available for a monthly fee (I am not sure what the cost is, as I do not have a paid account right now).
I asked for some details about the revamped website, and here is what I was told:
Escrow.com is gearing up to sponsor the 4th annual O.C. Supports Our Troops Charity Golf Tournament that is coming up in November. The tournament will be held at the Coto De Caza Golf & Racquet Club on November 9th, 2015. The annual golf tournament raises funds for the non-profit Orange County Supports Our Troops organization.
According to Escrow.com President Brandon Abbey, last year’s “golf tournament raised $190,000 and received matching funds from the Bob and Renee Parsons Foundation” (Bob Parsons founded GoDaddy).
If you are interested in participating in the tournament, there are still spots open. The cost is $600 for single golfers ($2,400 for a foursome), and Brandon Abbey let me know if you reach out to him, he will offer a $200 “friends of Escrow.com” discount. Tickets for the tournament closing dinner are $150, and dinner is included for the golfers who are participating. Registration for the tournament closes on October 27th.
Here is a
China Boot Camp is Allegravita’s latest masterclass series for non-Chinese domain registries, registrars and domain name investors seeking a fast, effective and profitable entry to China and Chinese-speaking markets.
As you’d be aware, we created, wrote and delivered the Chinese domaining masterclasses at Namescon 2015 on behalf of our client at the time, TLD Registry. That series of masterclasses was attended by almost 400 domainers and industry pros during Namescon, and we got such positive feedback on our work explaining Chinese IDNs and the history and present of Chinese domaining.
Upon reflecting on how we could better that series of masterclasses, we felt that it