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WSJ Reports on $1.5 BILLION PE Acquisition of Namecheap

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Richard Kirkendall is one of the hardest working executives in the domain name space as the Founder and CEO of Namecheap. He has built Namecheap into one of the largest domain name registrars, and he recently launched a sister registrar platform, Spaceship.

This morning, the Wall Street Journal reported some massive news as it relates to Namecheap. A private equity company is reportedly close to acquiring a majority stake in the company. Here’s an excerpt from the article with the gist of the deal.

Domain Summit Asia 2025 Coming in November

Fresh off a successful Domain Summit conference in London earlier this month, conference organizers announced a new event coming to Hong Kong later on this year. Domain Summit Asia 2025 will be held November 17-18 in Hong Kong. The event will be co-hosted by Jack Dai of DN.com.

Unlike many domain investment conferences, this event is invite-only. People who are interested in attending will need to register for the event and have their registration approved by conference organizers. Registering interest in attending can be done via Luma.com.

Peter Askew Sells DudeRanch.com

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I can’t say I ever had the desire to take a vacation on a dude ranch, but Peter Askew’s development of DudeRanch.com made that an appealing thought. Over the years, Peter shared photos and stories about his development of the brand he built, and I found myself researching a dude ranch vacation with my family.

Nearly a month ago, Peter mentioned that he was considering the sale of the domain name and business. Yesterday, Peter followed-up indicating the business was sold for an undisclosed amount. The deal was closed via the Quiet Light brokerage:

Beware of Early Renewal Fee for .AI Auction Wins (Updated)

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In January of this year, I won Pinwheel.ai in an auction held at Namecheap. My winning bid was $541, as archived by NameBio. The total cost I paid was $726.96 with the $185.96 renewal fee tacked on to the total. I have been under the assumption that the renewal fee charged for .AI domain names adds two years to the registration.

Super.xyz Sold via Atom for $287,607

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According to a post on X from Atom.com, Super.xyz sold for $287,607, becoming the largest publicly reported .XYZ domain name sale of all time. The domain name was sold by domain investor Logan Flatt, and it transacted via Atom on September 1, 2025:

Great NPR Podcast Explains the Value of Domain Names

Several weeks ago, Rick Schwartz shared that he would be a guest on an upcoming Planet Money podcast on NPR, where he chatted about domain names. The podcast was released yesterday, and it was one of the best podcasts I’ve heard that explains the value of domain names and the role domain investors play in the marketplace.

In addition to having Rick Schwartz as a guest, Snagged Founder Rob Schutz was also a guest. On a related note, I think Rob is able to offer some really good insights about domain name since he has considerable experience in the startup world, and works with numerous founders at various stages of corporate life. Rob was able to offer his insights as a domain broker while sharing some thoughts about the value domain names being to various startups.

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