GoDaddy acquired Uniregistry, but for Uniregistry customers who like the company’s user interface, platform, and tools, there will not be an visible changes to the user experience. Nobody has to transfer domain names to GoDaddy, nor do customers need to list domain names for sale on Afternic/GoDaddy or use GoDaddy’s platform. The only reported changes that are coming are contractual changes that Uniregistry emailed customers about a week ago.
GoDaddy’s Paul Nicks addressed this in a tweet last week:
In February of this year, GoDaddy announced that it reached a deal to acquire Uniregistry. As a result of this acquisition, there are going to be some changes for Uniregistry domain name registrants and customers. On March 31, Uniregistry emailed its customers to let them know what was going to be changing once the deal closes, “on or about April 8, 2020.” April 8th is coming up on Wednesday, and I want to share the email I received so people know what is happening and what to expect.
I appreciate how the email intertwined easy to read commentary with some required legalease to make it easier to understand what is changing and what is remaining the same. I would suggest reaching out to Uniregistry representatives or GoDaddy representatives if you have any specific questions about what will be happening to customers, domain names, and their accounts.
In short and from my understanding, not much is actually changing for Uniregistry customers beyond contractual changes that don’t seem like they will impact the customer experience.
One of the top news stories the past several weeks is the Coronavirus outbreak that has been making people sick throughout the world. Officially known as COVID-19, the novel coronavirus has sickened over 80,000 people and killed nearly 3,000 people. The continuing spread of the coronavirus is a scary situation that seems to be getting worse each day. It has also caused concern for people around the world who are searching online to learn about coronavirus and want to protect themselves from becoming infected.
I was curious to see who owns Coronavirus.com. I can see the domain name is registered to an entity called NameFind Cayman Islands LTD. As mentioned in an article yesterday, this company is associated with GoDaddy, so effectively, GoDaddy owns Coronavirus.com.
While looking through my DomainTools Registrant Alert email yesterday morning, I noticed domain names from Frank Schilling’s Name Administration Inc. transferred to a company called NameFind Cayman Islands LTD. The domain names are still registered at Uniregistrar Corp. (Uniregistry). I assume GoDaddy created this entity in the wake of its deal to acquire Frank Schilling’s company and the reported 350,000+ domain names in Frank’s portfolio.
GoDaddy has a domain name portfolio holding company called NameFind LLC. As far as I am aware, the bulk of domain names acquired by GoDaddy in various portfolio deals have moved into the NameFind LLC account. The NameFind LLC company has a mailing address in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which is the same address as Afternic’s office.
NameFind Cayman Islands LTD. has a Whois registrant address in the Cayman Islands:
Ten days ago, GoDaddy announced it will be acquiring Uniregistry. The deal terms and value were not announced by either company, and I do not anticipate the exact details of the sale will be shared by GoDaddy, Uniregistry, or Uniregistry Founder Frank Schilling. It does appear that we now have a price range for the deal based on GoDaddy’s 2019 Annual Report.
Here’s an excerpt from the report that references the acquisitions GoDaddy recently made:
Uniregistry shared its weekly domain name sales report, and the company announced it brokered the sale of BTI.com for $100,000. The deal was co-brokered between Uniregistry and DomainBooth.com, the brokerage operated by James Booth. The domain was acquired by James Booth in September of 2019 for an undisclosed amount of money:
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GoDaddy acquired Uniregistry, but for Uniregistry customers who like the company’s user interface, platform, and tools, there will not be an visible changes to the user experience. Nobody has to transfer domain names to GoDaddy, nor do customers need to list domain names for sale on Afternic/GoDaddy or use GoDaddy’s platform. The only reported changes that are coming are contractual changes that Uniregistry emailed customers about a week ago.
