WSJ Reports on $1.5 BILLION PE Acquisition of Namecheap

Elliot Silver
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9

Richard Kirkendall is one of the hardest working executives in the domain name space as the Founder and CEO of Namecheap. He has built Namecheap into one of the largest domain name registrars, and he recently launched a sister registrar platform, Spaceship.

This morning, the Wall Street Journal reported some massive news as it relates to Namecheap. A private equity company is reportedly close to acquiring a majority stake in the company. Here’s an excerpt from the article with the gist of the deal.

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Beware of Early Renewal Fee for .AI Auction Wins (Updated)

Elliot Silver
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In January of this year, I won Pinwheel.ai in an auction held at Namecheap. My winning bid was $541, as archived by NameBio. The total cost I paid was $726.96 with the $185.96 renewal fee tacked on to the total. I have been under the assumption that the renewal fee charged for .AI domain names adds two years to the registration.

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Namecheap Prioritizing Sedo Listings Over Afternic

Elliot Silver
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3

Michael Sumner from NameBio mentioned an unexpected uptick in sales closed via Sedo over the past couple of weeks, and he asked about whether a major registrar began prioritizing Sedo listings:

In response to the question, Namecheap CEO Richard Kirkendall confirmed that happened. Namecheap is now prioritizing Sedo listings when a domain name is listed on Sedo and Afternic:

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Namecheap .AI Filter Removed from ExpiredDomains.net

Elliot Silver
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2

I use ExpiredDomains.net every day to search for domain names coming up for auction. It’s a free tool that helps me scan Namecheap, Dynadot, and GoDaddy platforms for expiry auctions. It also helps me find domain names in pending delete status that I want to back order at DropCatch and NameJet.

This morning when searching for upcoming expiry auctions at Namecheap, I did not see any .AI domain names listed in my search. This was unusual since there are generally dozens if not more .AI domain names that are listed according to my preferences.

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Namecheap Outbound Transfer Email is Ideal

Elliot Silver
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3

There are many reasons for why a domain registrant might transfer a domain name away from its current registrar. By the time the transfer has been initiated, it’s most likely too late for a registrar to *save* the customer / domain name. There should be no reason for a registrar to delay a transfer.

Some registrars take up to a week to release a domain name. They offer no mechanism for the customer to approve the domain name transfer, and it moves forward at whatever pace is set by the registrar.

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Namecheap Adjusts Auction End Times and Closeout Process

Elliot Silver
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0

Namecheap notified its Namecheap Market customers of an adjustment to the end times for auctions and a simplified process for its closeouts.

Domain name auctions will all end at the same time each day. The time is 11am Eastern Time and the equivalent times throughout the world. You can do the math to understand when auctions will close in your timezone. Auctions will still be extended by 5 minutes each time a bid is placed in the final five minutes of an auction.

Closeout auctions will also have a small change. If a closeout domain auction ends without any bids, the auction will automatically extend for an additional 24 hours with a minimum bid of $5. .AI domain names – which are marked “Partner” on the auction pages, are not considered closeouts, so this will not be applicable to those domain names.

The content of the email is below for those who did not receive it but are interested in understanding:

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