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Sunday Updates – New York City Marathon Edition

Elliot Silver
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It’s a big Sunday for me, but I feel lazy right now. My wife is running in the ING New York City Marathon this morning, and she’s been up since 4:30am. I will be running around finding a couple of good spots to watch the run, so I am sure I will be tired when it’s all done.

Here are a few updates for Sunday:

– Yesterday, Adam posted a comment in a post that appears to have turned into a  referendum  on .TV, “They might change their mind and use it when Google launches Google TV.” I hadn’t thought about Google using .TV, but that could change the awareness of .TV and bring more value. The big issue is that Google seems to be using Google.com/TV instead. In fact, Google.TV forwards to Google.com – not even their Google TV website. Whether Google brands .TV or .COM could have big implications for .TV investors (I am not one of them yet).

– The more I think about it, the more I know how valuable a generic domain name is to a business. You can see it with the sale of Quidsi (owner of Diapers.com and Soap.com) to Amazon. Even more important though is the founders’ entrepreneurial spirit, business  acumen, and ability to raise VC funding if necessary for growth.

– Speaking of Quidsi, it was reported on the Next Level Media, LLC website that Quidsi previously acquired YoYo.com for $500,000. I believe this domain name was owned by a well known domain investor’s company.

– Good article on TheDomains.com yesterday about separating different business units into individual companies for legal purposes. It’s a reason I have two completely separate companies with different focuses. It’s a good read if you are serious about domain names.

– I finally want to congratulate my brother Scott for passing the Bar in the State of New York and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. I acquired a pretty easy to remember domain name for him to use when he’s ready… SHS.com.

Parent Company of Diapers.com & Soap.com to be Acquired by Amazon

Elliot Silver
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Fortune is reporting that Amazon is acquiring Quidsi, the parent company of Diapers.com and Soap.com, in a $540 million acquisition. This is a cash deal, and the founders of Quidsi have been reportedly signed to employment contracts by Amazon.

I think this is a very smart move by Amazon, and it follows the company’s acquisition of online retailer Zappos, which was announced about 15 months ago. The two companies have continued to run separately after that acquisition, and I would imagine Amazon will continue to leverage the Diapers.com and Soap.com brands as separate business entities.

It was just a few months ago (in July of 2010) that Quidsi launched Soap.com. At that time, it was reported that Diapers.com had revenue of over $300 million annually.

As I mentioned previously, Quidsi’s business model seems very similar to TABcom, LLC (known before as PetsUnited), the $100 million+ company that operates Dog.com, Horse.com, Garden.com, Fish.com, and many more e-commerce websites on generic domain names. I wonder if Amazon will give Alex Tabibi a call in the near future.

Cooking Channels Owns .TV Domain But Doesn’t Use It for Branding

Elliot Silver
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CookingChannelTV.comI recently noticed that my cable tv provider added a new channel to the already huge lineup. The Cooking Channel features a number of cooking shows featuring famous as well as up and coming chefs. I guess it’s probably because the Food Network focuses on more than just cooking.

While watching Kelsey’s Essentials, I heard her mention the url of the Cooking Channel’s website, and I was a bit surprised by what they chose: CookingChannelTV.com.  The Cooking Channel does own CookingChannel.TV (a name the company acquired sometime between May and July 2010), but they understand that most people know .com, so they are branding CookingChannelTV.com instead.

They do smartly forward the .TV domain name to their website, but it was somewhat surprising that they didn’t use .TV and do the reverse since that almost seems more intuitive.

Unfortunately for Scripps (the owner of the Cooking Channel), CookingChannel.com is owned by Reflex Publishing, a company that is known to not sell its great generic domain names.

Make Your Travel Plans for DomainFest

Elliot Silver
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I am someone who generally waits until the last possible moment to book a trip. It tends to cost me more in the end, but I always worry that if I book a trip too soon, something will come up along the way and ruin those plans.

Yesterday at Ad-Tech, I bumped into Jeff Kupietsky, CEO of Oversee.net, and we had the chance to speak for a bit. After speaking with him, I realized that DomainFest is just a few months away – February 1-3, 2011 in Santa Monica, California. It’s a little less than three months away, which I hadn’t thought about.

Three months may seem like a while, but it can be a good time to purchase airline tickets, not to mention that you can expense it in 2010 along with the hotel. I did a bit of research, and the flight from NYC to LAX is just $299 round trip on JetBlue, which seems very reasonable. American also has a similar schedule and pricing, but they don’t have Direct TV. Depending on where you’re coming from and the price, you might want to track airfares using Farecast.

I am probably going to book my flight and hotel soon, and I want to remind you that DomainFest is coming up.

Dallas Cowboys Suck, But Cowboys.com Now Available for Sale via Sedo

Elliot Silver
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It looks like rookie Sedo domain broker (but veteran domain investor)  Dave Evanson has scored a touchdown with this recent catch. According to the landing page on Cowboys.com, the domain name is now for sale with Evanson quarterbacking the transaction.

The Cowboys.com domain name has had an interesting recent history. Previously it was a country western website, and it then went to auction at the TRAFFIC conference. A representative for the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys had the winning bid of $275,000 at the live auction, but it turns out that he apparently thought the price was $275 rather than $275,000. It was later sold at the silent auction to a group of domain investors.

The group originally had some big plans for the domain name, but any time you get a group of A-type personalities on a project, it can be difficult to make headway. As the saying goes, it looks like there were “too many chiefs, but not enough firefighters.” You can see two videos from the Cowboys.com party embedded below (via YouTube).

If you are interested in bidding on the domain name, you can visit the Sedo listing or contact Dave Evanson by sending an email to dave.evanson@sedo.com or by calling 1 (617) 499-7222.

Rick Schwartz, Darren Cleveland, and a fake horse.

Eric Rice and Darren Cleveland

NameMedia Seeking Vice President of Product Management

Elliot Silver
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NameMedia in WalthamI thought the NameMedia Google Alert I received this morning might be of interest to someone who reads my blog, and I wanted to pass the information along to you. The company has posted a job opening for its VP of Product Management position.

One reason it might be interesting is that the company is looking for a “self starter” with “industry experience.” Now I am not sure what industry they are referencing, but if it’s the domain space, they could be looking to hire you. Here’s a clip of the position summary,

NameMedia is looking for a Product Vice President to manage our Afternic, SmartName and BuyDomains brands, combined they make the world’s leading domain marketplace and monetization platform.   In this leadership role, the successful candidate will have online, ecommerce and industry experience.

This is a great opportunity for a self-starter to have a direct impact on the bottom line of a fast-growing business.   The right candidate must be willing to do what it takes every single day to successfully execute against all goals.

If this position sounds like something you’re qualified to do, and you meet the company’s qualification requirements, you should be in touch with them.

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