Breaking: Escrow.com to be Acquired by Freelancer.com

Elliot Silver
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A few moments ago, I received an email from Escrow.com President Brandon Abbey announcing that Escrow.com was acquired by Freelancer.com. According to a press release (published in its entirety below), Freelancer.com “announced that it had entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Escrow.com from a private investor for US$7.5 million in cash.” The deal is subject to regulatory approval.

Commenting on the acquisition in an email, Brandon said the following:

“Needless to say, this is very exciting for us to be joining the world’s largest freelancing, outsourcing and crowdsourcing marketplace and their 15 million users in 247 countries around the world. The company will remain a California based business and we will continue to operate the business as usual and to exceed the high standards that you have come to expect from us.”

Based on those comments, it seems like this is good news for the company, as it will open up more opportunities for Escrow.com to be used to facilitate payments for the Freelancer.com audience.  I am hopeful that Escrow.com continues to be run in the same manner in the past, as I appreciate the attention the company gives its customers, and they are a trusted partner of mine, both for my escrow transactions and as a sponsor of this blog.

The press release published by Freelancer.com can be found below:

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Meeting with Lori Anne Wardi to Raise Funds for Non-Profit

Elliot Silver
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There is a charity auction on CharityBuzz that will be of interest to people in the domain name business. Lori Anne Wardi is auctioning a private one hour lunch meeting with the proceeds to benefit the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship South Florida.

I have known Lori Anne for almost ten years, and think she is one of the smartest people I know in the domain business. If you haven’t met Lori Anne or aren’t familiar with her, here is a bit of background from the CharityBuzz auction listing:

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Tracy Fogarty Launches Domain Brokerage and Consulting Firm

Elliot Silver
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Beginning in 2013, Tracy Fogarty was a domain name broker with Domain Holdings, representing the owners of valuable domain names. This morning, Tracy updated her LinkedIn profile  to announce the launch of eNaming.com, a domain name consulting firm and domain brokerage she founded on her own.

According to its website, eNaming.com will help clients on both sides of deals. The company will offer domain name sales brokerage services, and it will also work with clients to acquire domain names on their behalf. Tracy will also use her experience to provide domain name consulting services to her clients.

While looking through the new website, I saw that Tracy published a blog post announcing the launch of her business this morning. In the blog post, Tracy shared that this will be the first time she is in business for herself:

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Report: “Google has decided against making an aggressive push”

Elliot Silver
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Late last night, the New York Post published an article about GoDaddy’s upcoming IPO, and the most interesting aspect of the article to me doesn’t really have to do with GoDaddy. According to the article, “Google has decided against making an aggressive push into the domain space, The Post has learned.”

I am sure this will come as good news for GoDaddy and other large domain registrars. I haven’t heard many people in this business publicly express concern about Google Domains, but I would assume many registrars had private fears that Google could potentially become a major competitor if it chose that path.

The New York Post’s source also mentioned that Google apparently does not have plans to enter the hosting or website development business. This is also good news for companies like GoDaddy who have been focusing on these add-on services to drive revenue. I think that this may be a key driver in a decision about a big move into the domain business.

Despite Google’s size and reach, I think there is at least one major barrier to

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.co.com: 10k Domains at 1 Year Anniversary

Elliot Silver
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Ken Hansen from the .co.com registry shared some news with me that I want to share with you. The .co.com registry recently celebrated its one year anniversary, and there are now more than 10,000 .co.com domain names registered. .co.com domain names retail for anywhere from $20 – $40, and some registrars have a higher renewal cost. The registry has also sold many domain names at a premium cost, such as Mobile.co.com for $25,000.

If .co.com were a new gTLD registry, the extension would rank as one of the top 100 registries (based on the nTLDStats.com list of top new gTLD registries). The registry also reported increasing momentum towards the end of 2014. According to the press release announcing the news, “many companies are using their .co.com domain rather than their country code top-level domain to better reach potential outside of their borders.”

A key test for the registry will be the renewal rate for its registered domain names. Since some registrars are charging more for renewals, this could lead to an uptick in revenue. On the other hand, this could also lead to a higher attrition rate.

The press release announcing the news is published below:

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How Enhancements to NameBio Will Help Domain Investors

Elliot Silver
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When I am buying or selling a domain name and looking for comparable sales data, I use NameBio. There are nearly a quarter of a million of archived public domain name sales reported by most of the major resale marketplaces dating back to the 1990s listed in the NameBio database.

According to a press release I received this morning, NameBio was recently revamped and the website was upgraded. NameBio has been operated by Adam Strong of Strong, Inc., and the press release announced a new strategic alliance with Michael Sumner. Both Adam and Michael have extensive knowledge of the domain space, and that gives them insight about what will make NameBio most useful for users.

Some of the major enhancements that were made that will interest domain investors include the following:

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