GoDaddy has acquired more two letter .com domain names.
I noticed a Whois change this morning on HU.com. The domain name moved from the Esqwire.com escrow account (the law firm of Ari Goldberger and Jason Schaeffer), and the domain name is now registered to NameFind, the portfolio company owned by GoDaddy.
After doing a bit of searching, I noticed that HU.com had been used by Centralnic to sell third level domain names (such as Example.HU.com). When I did a subsequent search for the HU.com domain name, I saw the Domain Name Wire article about Centralnic’s decision to sunset some of its third level domain name offerings. The article mentioned 8 LL .com domain names that were included in this decision, so I did Whois searches on those 8 domain names.
Here is the current ownership information:
- AR.com – NameFind
- GB.com – Centralnic
- HU.com – NameFind
- KR.com – NameFind
- QC.com – NameFind
- NO.com – Registered under Whois privacy
- SE.com – Registered under Whois privacy
- UY.com – NameFind
Based on a bit of quickly done research, it looks like GoDaddy’s NameFind acquired 5 two letter .com domain names that had been operated by Centralnic. It appears that two others are now privately registered and a third domain name is registered to Centralnic as of the time of publication. I am not sure if those domain names were wholly owned by Centralnic or other entities.
I reached out to GoDaddy VP Paul Nicks to ask if he can confirm the acquisition. He told me, “NameFind purchased several 2-ltr .coms last year, but I can’t disclose the seller.” I presume that is in reference to the domain names listed above.
I wonder if the acquisition amount was noted in a prior quarterly report, although it might be included with other acquisitions the company made.
If I learn more, I will share what I find.
Yes it is true they have taken down my domain http://www.hotel.kr.com it is almost criminal what they have done. My site is not the only one affected. Centralnic are destrying real companies by this action with total disregard to the consequences.
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=site%3A.*.kr.com&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b-ab&gfe_rd=cr&ei=dswRWfL1CaTA8geb4rLADw
Same with hu.com domains all down
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=site.%3A.*.hu.com&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b-ab&gfe_rd=cr&ei=Qc4RWaW6JaTA8geb4rLADw#q=site:.*.hu.com
Curious if you knew that hotel.kr.com was a subdomain when you bought it.
Did they offer you compensation or something else to settle this issue?
No compensation except a crappy alternative like http://www.hotelkr.xyz not fit for purpose.
Yes we knew it was a subdomain but the company clearly gave the impression that the domain could be renewed indefinitely. We trusted them on this and that trust proved to be severely misplaced. The point in no one can trust a .uk.com or .eu.com or .us.com after this episode. When we brought the domain it clearly stated in their terms and conditions:
““The initial period of registration of the domain name is a whole number of years between one year and ten years. Thereafter, the registration may be renewed for further years provided that you pay the appropriate renewal fee on or before the relevant renewal date.”
We are totally disgusted about what they have done and shall be taking them to court for both misleading our company and preventing us renewing the domain.
Sorry to hear about it. I would be upset, too.
IMHO it’s never a good idea doing business on a subdomain, too risky and you always depend on someone else.
Definitely to avoid, to use a euphemism. 🙂
Keith, if you want help finding a suitable replacement domain for Hotel.kr.com, I will help for free.
I bet GoDaddy.com and Top 100 corporations will own all of the most valuable 1-2 word premium dot-Com domains with commercial meaning within 5 years and the rest of the valuable domains will be owned by trademark holders through a more strict UDRP and Anti-Cyber Squatting policy. I think all of this will happen by 2021.
At the same time, I think 2018-2020 will be a great time for premium 1-2 keyword domain speculators.
Hi Elliot,
GoDaddy acquired these 2L’s back when they acquired the EliteDomains portfolio, which GoDaddy confirmed in this article I did in April 2016: http://dotweekly.com/godaddyelite-domains-portfolio-contains-23-2-letter-coms/
So CentralNic was clearly connected in some fashion with the EliteDomains portfolio!
To note, CentralNic did announce a domain sale or sales in relation to $5.1M but it is not clear if this was tied to the April 2016 GoDaddy sale or not.
Good info – thanks for sharing!
P Bortone Shmone Drone!