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Andrew Hazen’s Prime Visibility Acquired for $36 Million in Cash

Elliot Silver
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16

I’ve met Andrew Hazen at a couple of domain investor events in New York City, and we’ve had a few conversations via email. Although investing in domain names is not his primary occupation, he understands the business and advises his clients on the benefits of domain names.

This morning, I learned that Andrew has reached an agreement to sell Prime Visibility, the full service digital marketing company he founded in 1998, for $36 million in cash. The acquiring company is blinkx plc, a California company that is publicly traded in the UK. The deal closed and was funded last week.

Andrew’s story reads like a business person’s fairy tale: “When I founded Prime Visibility in 1998 I never imagined in my wildest dreams that the company would make the Inc List of Fastest Growing Companies in America not once but twice and then for the company to be acquired in 2007 by private investors and then again in 2011 by a public company.”

Andrew plans to leave Prime Visibility this week, and his immediate plans for the future have not been decided yet.

Congratulations to Andrew, and I wish him all the best.

.XXX: To Protect or Not?

Elliot Silver
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8

Someone asked a question on DomainQuestions.com that I’ve been hearing quite a bit lately: “Should I protect myself by buying the corresponding .xxx domains?” People have seen the .XXX brand protection advertising and are wondering if they need to protect their brands.

Generally speaking,  I’ve  recommended  that people apply for .XXX domain names to correspond with their important brands, only if the .XXX domain names could legitimately be used as an adult website. For instance, DogWalker.xxx wouldn’t make much sense to be used for an adult site, but Dating.xxx would make sense and could potentially be confusing once the general public knows more about .XXX and uses it more regularly.

Some more conservative brands or organizations should probably protect their brands regardless, so they don’t have to explain a .XXX site to constituents or customers who may hear about the .XXX site through the grapevine.

I’m not too worried about this for most of my brand names, so the few I want to protect, I will do my best to reserve at General Availability, which begins on December 6. For me personally, I didn’t want to spend a $60 non-refundable application fee, when I didn’t see much potential for confusion with my brands.

.XXX landrush ended yesterday, and the auctions for the domain names that have more than one entity applying for them will begin on December 12 at Pool.

Use a Hotmail Alias to Buy Domain Names

Elliot Silver
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23

Since I often receive email inquiries from Hotmail and Gmail addresses, I assume there are many domain investors who use these free email services to buy and sell domain names. I have had a hotmail account for a number of years, and I noticed a banner advertising alias accounts at Hotmail.

According to Hotmail, “Some people like to use multiple addresses for different things. For example, you might use one address for a job search and a different one for online shopping. That way, messages sent to those addresses can be kept in a separate folder.” I think this could be useful when you want to purchase  domain names, and I will explain below.

Let’s say I want to buy DomainInvesting.com, and I don’t know the owner (this is just an example). Assuming it’s someone involved in the domain industry, I wouldn’t necessarily want him to know that I am buying it, since that could increase the asking price. By using an alias in my hotmail account, I can contact the person anonymously.

I am sure many people use aliases when they want to buy a  domain name, but instead of having to maintain different logins and passwords, this particular service allows someone to maintain different email addresses from one single account.  Keep in mind that the seller will likely learn your identity when using an escrow service, but I am sure there are ways around that.

I don’t recommend being dishonest when buying a domain name, but it’s never good to pay much more for a domain name based on who you are. As a seller, I don’t feel that way, but this is about buying and not selling!

What other tactics  are you willing to share? What are your thoughts on using an alias?

Happy Thanksgiving from New York

Elliot Silver
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6

If you’re from the US or celebrating Thanksgiving, I hope you’re having a great day with friends and family. Happy Thanksgiving from New York City.

Here are two photos from the Thanksgiving Day parade… one of the perks of living in NYC on the parade route… It’s also one of the downsides, as our car was towed at 4:00am. Luckily, they just moved it and didn’t give a citation.

Check Out Who Owns Presidential Candidate Domain Names

Elliot Silver
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7

I thought it would be interesting to see who owns the .com domain names of presidential candidates, so I did some research and the information is below. In addition, I thought it would also be interesting to use DomainTools to see who owned those domain names five years prior.

The real “fun” comes in when the nominees are chosen and years of speculation by, ahem, domain “investors” may or may not pay off. There have been thousands of “lottery ticket” domain names purchased for that rush. Someone apparently thinks there’s a chance for a Huntsman/Palin ticket and bought HuntsmanPalin.com. Good luck on that one.

Republican Candidates

MittRomney.com
– Now: Domains by Proxy (Used by Romney campaign)
– 2006: Romney Committee

HermanCain.com
– Now: Domains by Proxy (Used by Cain campaign)
– 2006: Company called ” T.H.E.” from Nebraska

RonPaul.com
– Now: Whois Privacy Services Pty Ltd (Ron Paul “Fan Site”)
– 2006: Pop Art LLC

NewtGingrich.com
– Now: POBox.org
– 2006: Gingrich Communications

RickPerry.com
– Now: Whois Privacy Services Pty Ltd
– 2006: CampaignWeb

MicheleBachmann.com
– Now: Michele Bachmann
– 2006: Business Architecture, Inc.

Democratic Candidates

BarackObama.com
– Now: Obama for America
– 2006: Obama 2010, Inc.

HillaryClinton.com (kidding)
– Now: Friends of Hillary
– 2006: Friends of Hillary

Constant.com Sells for $90,000 as Afternic Sells $1.21 Million in Domain Names

Elliot Silver
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2

Afternic reported domain name sales of $1,210,767 last week, including both public and private transactions. Leading the way was the $90,000 sales of Constant.com. The updated Whois record shows the owner as David Aninowsky, the CEO of hosting company, Choopa. I don’t know what the plans are for this domain name, but Constant.com would seem like a great term for a hosting company.

Afternic public sales last week:
Constant.com $90,000.00
floridacancer.com $10,500.00
jobport.com $8,500.00
redranch.com $8,000.00
segurosmedicos.com $7,000.00
24insurance.com $7,000.00
modernauto.com $6,977.00
btm.net $6,525.00
trainingplus.com $5,500.00
infoconnect.com $5,500.00
sortation.com $5,000.00
socialsecurityonline.com $5,000.00
giveitup.com $5,000.00
blogue.com $5,000.00

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