Give.com Acquired by HostGator Founder

Elliot Silver
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Earlier this week, Give.com was sold for $500,000 in a sale transacted via Sedo. The Whois record for Give.com updated yesterday, and I learned that the domain name was acquired by Brent Oxley, the founder of HostGator (who sold the company to Endurance International Group for over $200 million).

After seeing the Whois change, I reached out to Brent to learn more about the acquisition and his plans for the domain name.

Brent told me that Sedo’s Dave Evanson emailed him a list of high value domain names he was brokering, and Give.com was on the list. Although Brent was not in the market for a domain name at that time, he had been planning to set up a charity and had not finalized a name for it yet. The email proved to be serendipitous, and Give.com will be used for Brent’s charity.  Commenting on the deal, Dave told me, “I was aware of Mr. Oxley’s outstanding background and was delighted I was able to negotiate a price that made seller and buyer happy.”

Brent shared his vision for how Give.com will be used and when the charity will launch:

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Verified Domains to Provide Domain Name Background Checks

Elliot Silver
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Bill Hartzer emailed me to announce the launch of Verified Domains, a business that was created to provide “extensive background checks on domains.” The purpose of the business is to give domain buyers reassurances about the history of domain names that are being considered for acquisition.

Verified Domains launched today, and I have not had an opportunity to explore the website fully, so I asked Bill to share more information about how Verified Domains works. Here’s what Bill had to say about how it works and why people would want to use Verified Domains:

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Taryn Naidu Named to “40 Under 40”

Elliot Silver
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Taryn Naidu, CEO of Rightside, was honored by the Puget Sound Business Journal in this year’s “40 Under 40” awards. Taryn was listed at #31 in the alphabetical slideshow.

Taryn has been CEO of Rightside since the company went public, and he has worked with the company since 2006. Taryn previously worked for Pool.com, another domain industry company.

According to the article, the

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Escrow.com Listens to Customer Suggestions

Elliot Silver
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One minor annoyance I have with Escrow.com is that a buyer can choose to pay via credit card, and his choice can cost me an additional fee when I have agreed to pay half or the full escrow fee. It’s a bit frustrating to expect to pay $162 on a $5,000 deal only to find out the buyer used a credit card and the fee increased to over $300.

For the most part, this fee is a simple inconvenience. However, there have been quite a few times I sold a domain name at a fairly low profit margin and the increased fee makes that margin even more slim. When going into escrow on a smaller deal, I always cross my fingers that the buyer would send a wire transfer and be assessed the standard fee rather than paying double because he chose to use a credit card.

Based on customer feedback,

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Great Meetup in Boston Last Night

Elliot Silver
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I want to thank the people who turned out for the domain investor meetup in Boston last night. I especially appreciate the people who came from out of town for the event – as far away as Missouri, Iowa, and  New York. In addition to having a great time networking, the event raised about $1,200 for Dana-Farber Cancer Institute via my Pan-Mass Challenge fundraising.

Bill’s Bar on Lansdowne Street played host to the event, and they basically gave us the entire restaurant to walk around and chat. Because it was a fundraising event for Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, they also were nice enough to give us  a ton of appetizers to eat during the event at no cost. Bill’s Bar is located right behind Fenway Park, and it is my go to spot for dinner before Red Sox games. I sincerely appreciate their hosting the event.

I want to give a very big thank you to Sedo for sponsoring the event and paying for the open bar for all event attendees. Sedo also had a  large employee turnout, and I was able to meet quite a few people I had not  met previously and re-connect with people I see occasionally. In addition to this, Sedo also made a generous donation to Dana Farber to help me reach my fundraising goal. Thank you, Sedo!

All around, it was a really good time last night, and I appreciate those who came out for networking and fundraising!

Here are some photos of the event, via Sedo’s Twitter feed:

Bodis is “Now Offering Bitcoin as a Payment Method”

Elliot Silver
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Last night, Bodis sent an email to clients to announce it is “now offering Bitcoin as a payment method.” I have not heard of other parking services offering payouts in Bitcoin, and it’s very likely that Bodis is the first. I am not sure how the payments and account balances are adjusted as the exchange rate fluctuates.

I believe I received this email as a legacy TrafficZ client. As you may recall, it was announced that Bodis acquired TrafficZ earlier this year.

I am unsure about what prompted this additional payment option, but I presume there were client requests for Bitcoin to become a payment method.

Here is the email I received from Bodis yesterday evening announcing the news:

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