Home Blog Page 1275

Did Facebook Quietly Acquire FB.com?

Elliot Silver
-
7

I read an interesting “Tweet” on George Kirikos’ Twitter feed this morning. According to Domaintools’ Whois History tool, the domain name FB.com changed hands on September 3, 2010. Prior to this change, the domain name was registered to the American Farm Bureau Federation. The organization owns FB.org, which might explain their willingness to part with FB.com.

FB.com is currently registered to DNStination  Inc., and it is registered at Mark Monitor, the same corporate registrar used by Facebook for their Facebook.com registration. Could Facebook have stealthily acquired FB.com? The domain name does not currently resolve anywhere, but it would seem to be a good domain name for them to own, especially with the popularity of url shorteners.

Ironically enough, there is a page on Facebook called “Petition to make www.fb.com an official link to facebook is on Facebook.” The group currently has 75 members. Perhaps they were on to something.

BethlehemSteel.com: Piece of American History Pending Auction

Elliot Silver
-
4

I went to college in Pennyslvania’s Lehigh Valley, and one couldn’t help but learn a little bit about the region’s former reliance on the steel industry, especially as a History major with an interest in American history. Bethlehem Steel played an integral part in the development of the Lehigh Valley, if not the United States.

I just noticed that the domain name BethlehemSteel.com has expired, and it is pending deletion/auction at Namejet should the former owner opt to not renew it. If you aren’t familiar with Bethlehem Steel (no worries if you aren’t), you can read more about the former company on its Wikipedia page.

I believe the company was bought by a large company a few years back, although I haven’t done any trademark research. It appears to have been owned by someone unrelated to the company back in 2003, and a couple years later the email address on record is for a large law firm. Similarly, up until the domain name expired, it appears to be registered to a person of the same name at a different large law firm. Perhaps this registrant moved on but didn’t keep the Whois information updated?

In any event, although it’s served primarily as a Network Solutions landing page for a while, I still think this domain name is a little piece of American nostalgia.

The Ike Ditzenberger Special Touchdown: Great High School Football Video

Elliot Silver
-
4

I saw this video of a touchdown run by Ike Ditzenberger in a Washington state high school football game featuring Snohomish vs. Lake Stevens. The back story is that Ike is a student with Down Syndrome, and he trained for the “Ike Special” play for the last three years.

The game was a blow out, and Ditzenberger’s touchdown was the only score his team made that day. With all the bad things you hear about, it was nice to see sportsmanship like this in a high school football game.

Thanks to Donna for letting me know about the video.

At What Revenue Multiple Do You Sell a Website?

Elliot Silver
-
35

I wanted to write about this before, but the news of AOL’s acquisition of TechCrunch motivated me to post this general question: At approximately what revenue multiple do you sell a website that has a business operating on it?

Over the past few months, a number of individuals and companies have made inquires on a couple of my websites. I’ve always replied that I have no interest in selling, because for me, it’s silly to sell a revenue generating website that has nearly zero overhead. On the flip side of this is the fact that there should really be a point at which I would sell the website and domain name, since the ultimate goal is to make money.

Now I know there are LOTS of considerations to take into account when selling a website (like loss of revenue and tax considerations), but at what type of revenue multiple should a company be willing to sell a website? This is a very vague question because it would be a very different answer for a company with an operating loss, tiny profit margin, or 100% profit margin, but I look forward to seeing what you think.

IDN Event Coming to New York City October 30

Elliot Silver
-
2

A night of domainer networking and sushi is coming up in New York City, and I will be attending. Here are the details:

IDNTools and sponsors Register.com, Moniker, and SnapNames will host the first-ever IDN Event in Manhattan on Saturday night, October 30th from 7:00pm – midnight. The night of dinner and networking will be held at Haru, a great sushi restaurant located in New York City.

The purpose of the event is to facilitate networking and educate domain registrants about international domaining opportunities and the importance of connecting with local audiences. The organizers will also hold an IDN auction to coincide with the event.

If you register before October 1st, the cost of attendance is $99, and it includes a full sushi dinner.   Attendees will have the opportunity to network with other domain investors and industry professionals. There is a full agenda for the IDN Event listed on IDNEvent.com.

Research in Motion’s Tablet Named Playbook

Elliot Silver
-
2

Research in Motion PlaybookCanada-based Blackberry maker, Research in Motion, announced the name of its highly anticipated tablet computer. Once speculated to be called the Black Pad, RIM’s new tablet will be known as the Playbook. The name of the tablet was revealed today at the BlackBerry Developer conference in San Francisco.

Similar to the web presence for Apple’s iPad tablet computer, Playbook.com is being used by another company. For a number of years, Playbook.com has been operated by Marc Lawrence as a sports wagering odds website. It will be interesting to see if RIM attempts to acquire this domain name, assuming they have not been able to do so already.

Interestingly, it looks like BlackberryPlaybook.com was just registered last week. This privately registered domain name currently resides on CSCDNS.net DNS, which is owned by Corporation Service Company, a company that handles domain registration and other services for large companies such as Research in Motion. The domain name forwards to the Blackberry website. Other Playbook related domain names continue to be registered as I write.

Cybersquatters should beware though. Research in Motion has been known to file UDRPs for domain names it believes it has a right to own. In fact, last year, they filed a UDRP for 111 domain names and won.

1...1,2741,2751,276...1,573Page 1,275 of 1,573