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news Alter Domain Marketplace To Continue Operations Under New Ownership

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A NamePros member has purchased the Alter domain name marketplace. Alter will continue operations as a brandable marketplace under the new ownership.

I reached out to the new owner, Filip Erkic, who goes by the NamePros handle @F.E., to learn details of the sale, and his plans for Alter moving forward.

Domain investors with names listed on Alter had received a farewell email from founder Deven Patel on March 19, 2022. That email announced that third-party domain listings would be taken down on April 2, 2022. It also said that funds spent to purchase Alter logos would be refunded.

Almost immediately, several NamePros members expressed the wish to consider purchase of Alter – see the discussion in this NamePros thread.

Alter had grown to more than 40,000 domain listings.

Interview With New Owner

Clearly it was a big decision to step in to purchase Alter. What aspects of the existing Alter marketplace made you feel sure the investment was worthwhile?

I already had plans to step into a brandable marketplace with brand.buzz, but that would've taken some time to go from the ground up. Deven did a great job building Alter as a community-driven domain marketplace, which perfectly aligned with my vision. Therefore taking this step felt natural. Deven and the team did an amazing job on many aspects including design, search engine optimization, strong customer support and community engagement. It will be a really difficult task to make him proud by shaping an even better future for Alter, and especially partners (domain investors) and customers (buyers).

What are your plans, in both the short-term and long-term, for the Alter marketplace?

My short-term goals are to simplify the seller experience by automating tasks that previously required their interaction like payouts, and to some degree domain transfers. In the longer term, even though Alter grew substantially as a hybrid marketplace, I am not sure that there is something better to offer to domain investors in that space, considering what's already available within the market. Alter is going to slowly move back to it's original vision – becoming a game changer in the brandable naming space. We'll be gradually upgrading the current platform by adding features. Some that I can mention are highly customizable portfolio pages, free built-in logo creation, and more analytical views for sellers so they can understand traffic flow to their domains.

One aspect of Alter many of us admired was the interaction with the NamePros community, through its official thread. Do you plan to continue that?

Not only to continue, but try to bring it to an even higher level – shaping Alter's success together with this community. We will be working along with the amazing NamePros community to build a marketplace they want, a marketplace that makes sales happen. One of my main reasons for entering the marketplace industry, especially in the brandable naming space, is because I feel that current marketplaces have somewhat disconnected themselves from their partner sellers. We plan to innovate through a strong partnership.

I am not sure how much you are able to share about terms or the purchase price? Was it a straight cash transaction?

It was an all cash transaction. Instead of buying just assets, we've decided to buy 100% ownership in Alter.com Inc as a business.

Will you be the sole owner, or are you operating as part of an investment group?

There's actually two people involved in ownership, me and my partner. While we are owners, the future of Alter will be shaped by an amazing team that works with us.

What are your current thoughts on ways to improve Alter?

Returning Alter back to its origins as a brandable domain name marketplace would be the first and major step. From that point forward, we're going to slowly introduce new platform upgrades, invest more in marketing efforts, and deliver excellent customer support to both buyers and domain sellers.

If I asked you to in one sentence give your vision statement for Alter going forward, what would it be?

Naming the web.

I see that you have been a NamePros member since 2012. Can you please briefly summarize your background in domain-related activities.

My background in domaining industry was as a side-hustle for the most part. I started investing in domains in late 2009 mostly by hand registering keyword .coms and flipping them for quick bucks, low to mid 3-figure sales, doing direct outreach. My first encounter with buying high-ticket domains happened in 2016, when I bought a generic 4 letter .com which played a major part in rebranding of an SaaS company recently. From time to time, I also do buyer and seller brokerage, but due lack of time I usually forward those to fellow brokers.

Brief History of Alter

On Sept. 14, 2020 Deven Patel announced Alter to the NamePros community. While he discussed a number of aspects, an important one was that Alter would clearly focus on the experience of potential buyers.
Our goal is to prioritize buyers because I think they are the key to success in any industry. The domain industry is no exception. Without buyers, there’s no money. This is why we’ve made it our mission to help entrepreneurs succeed!

Domain investors were attracted by a low, compared to brandable marketplaces, commission of 10%. Initially, Alter operated much like the legacy brandable marketplaces, with strong selection criteria. Most submitted domain names were not accepted.

A logo-style presentation was used for domain names. They provided logos for accepted names.

Like BrandBucket and SquadHelp, Alter invests in online advertising of specific domain names.

A bit later, Alter introduced a syndication feature where one could opt to have Alter-listed names automatically appear on Dan, Sedo and a number of registrar marketplaces. A surcharge was added to the domain price on those marketplaces, so the investor still received the Alter listing net amount.

Alter has a more wordy landing page than most other marketplaces. To assist, they use AI to automatically generate descriptions and to select categories and keywords. All of these could be overridden by the seller.

Along the way, Alter evolved to become what they called a hybrid marketplace. This allowed users to list whatever domains they wanted, like a general purpose marketplace, but the style of the marketplace, and advertising, remained similar to the brandable marketplaces.

Under the hybrid model, the number of Alter listings grew to more than 40,000. While this opened the platform to new types of domains some startups might consider, the downside is the possible dilution of quality names. Alter tried to control that impact through their search algorithm.

Professionally designed logos were no longer free after they switched to be a hybrid marketplace, but could be purchased. A basic text-only logo designed by user, or one uploaded. An AI created logo was generated for those who did not wish to invest time in optimizing the basic one.

Alter developed their own 6-factor brandable appraisal system, as well as a user-friendly initial trademark search tool.

What This Means For Those With Names At Alter

I asked Filip Erkic what the change will mean for existing users.
Domains will remain listed for the time being. There won't be any change up to the point when we initiate domain review, during which we'll communicate directly with each domain investor on Alter platform. That way, we'll be able to assist the investors directly in case some of them decide to move their entire Alter portfolio away, or in case domains get delisted during the domain review process.

In terms of the date for Alter ownership change, he said
Change of ownership is initiated, and I hope that full transition will be completed within the next 30 days.

Those with names listed at Alter will see when they log into their accounts that the notice about ceasing on April 2 has been taken down.

Final Thoughts

Let me first express appreciation to Alter founder Deven Patel. I admire what he and his team created in a relatively short time. He brought to Alter not only a lengthy experience acquiring domains for development purposes, but also as a founder of a number of startups in sectors including marketing, web hosting, social networking, blogging, and SaaS.

What I particularly appreciated was the way he interacted with the NamePros community. He was not always able to implement all ideas, but to a significant degree NamePros involvement informed many aspects of the development. By conducting this discussion in a promoted Alter official discussion thread, he was able to engage those members of the community that wanted to be involved, without pushback from those who wanted to avoid the discussion.

I am glad to see that Alter will continue, and thank the new owner for sharing some of his thoughts for future directions. It is good to have choice in the domain industry. Ultimately choice, innovation and competition will help drive improvements throughout the domain industry.

NamePros members who wish to make suggestions about Alter can continue to do so at the official sponsored Alter discussion thread.

A sincere thanks to Filip Erkic, @F.E., for being open to sharing information for a story announcing the sale of Alter.

Update on Aug 29, 2022:
In an email to Alter users dated Aug 28, 2022, Deven Patel, CEO and Founder Alter Inc., confirmed that the deal to purchase Alter had fallen through, and no other purchaser for the marketplace had been found. "On September 3rd, all remaining domain listings will be removed from our marketplace. Seller accounts will remain active until all pending installment sales are completed so payments can be cashed out."


This article is presented as domain industry news, and not promotion or recommendation of any particular service. The author reached out to the buyer at the negotiation stage to see if he would be willing to share details of a sale if it happened. The author has names at Alter, and many other marketplaces, but no other association with Alter.
 
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The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
in a day or two. platform will remain closed for listing for a few days until transition is fully completed and current listings reviewed. Also expect further information published soon on Alter's website as well.

Its really good when you would add a new feature to report all domain sales from alter regularly and officially
 
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Congratulations @F.E. for the alter.com acquisition.
thanks for the article @Bob Hawkes.
 
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Great to see this happen! I hope the new owners are greatly successful!
 
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The pause was too long. Alter still does not accept new domains with alter DNS
 
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The pause was too long. Alter still does not accept new domains with alter DNS
He literally bought it only 17 days ago. Are you telling someone how to run their new business? Let him take his time and do it right.
 
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I'm not asking anyone to hurry. As far as I understood, the new owner decided to continue the business. And now the domains are being checked for the presence of an alter DNS. It's easy to do this programmatically, which is why I was surprised by the prolonged pause.
 
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There's an important update from @Deven Patel, founder of Alter, in the official Alter thread:

"[...] On that note, have you or anyone else heard from @F.E. recently? I've been trying to reach him over the last week and a half without any luck. It's crucial that he contact me ASAP otherwise he will be in breach of our contract. It's also not fair to leave domain sellers who have been patiently waiting for an update in limbo. Again, all my previous interactions with him have been very positive so hoping he's just going through something personally. If not, this behavior is very unprofessional, let alone illegal."
 
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There's an important update from @Deven Patel, founder of Alter, in the official Alter thread:

"[...] On that note, have you or anyone else heard from @F.E. recently? I've been trying to reach him over the last week and a half without any luck. It's crucial that he contact me ASAP otherwise he will be in breach of our contract. It's also not fair to leave domain sellers who have been patiently waiting for an update in limbo. Again, all my previous interactions with him have been very positive so hoping he's just going through something personally. If not, this behavior is very unprofessional, let alone illegal."
Funding issues?
 
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Time to find an Alter-nate buyer? 😉
 
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Thanks for the thread Bob
A NamePros member has purchased the Alter domain name marketplace. Alter will continue operations as a brandable marketplace under the new ownership.

I reached out to the new owner, Filip Erkic, who goes by the NamePros handle @F.E., to learn details of the sale, and his plans for Alter
 
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I am sure some have read the commentary in the other threads or on social media. Once there is firm news provided by current owner and tentative purchaser, I will post an update here.

As I understand it, the original agreement had about a 30 day period to sale completion, assuming all terms were met. We should be approaching that soon.

For those who use Alter, I note that they have now temporarily disabled the lease-to-own options so that option does not show up for prospective buyers. Sellers do not need to disable this on individual names. You will see a red notification when you sign into your account.

Those with names still on marketplace can still edit logos or descriptions, or change BIN pricing. It is not possible to add new names to the site, or to reinstate names that you had deleted, however. I presume no new seller accounts are being allowed.

It seems to me that the marketplace is otherwise operating as before, with both type-in and marketplace traffic, statistics updated, and periodic checks that DNS still pointed to the site and warning emails sent. On my names it seems there has not been much change in traffic during this transitional period.

As I understand it, BIN sales continue at the Alter marketplace during the transitional period.

Nothing in this post is directly from the current owner or prospective purchaser, just my observations as a user of the marketplace.

Bob
 
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He said something on twitter about turning it in to a porn site. Dunno if I'm late to the party but that's what I read a couple of days ago 🤷
 
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current owner or prospective purchaser
It's confusing because in one of his posts, Patel referred to the other party as "the new owner".

It's disappointing that Alter.com as we know it wasn't given enough time to succeed. I felt the whole "exit" was rushed, but of course he knows better.

Now all that negative drama is bad for business.
 
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Hello @F.E.

I hope you are doing well.

Almost two months ago you had this extremely inspiring interview with @Bob Hawkes about all kinds of plans for Alter. Then a situation arose where it seemed like you no longer intend to take over the company. Could you please update us on the progress of the acquisition for NamePros readers? It is very much appreciated.
 
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Hello @F.E.

I hope you are doing well.

Almost two months ago you had this extremely inspiring interview with @Bob Hawkes about all kinds of plans for Alter. Then a situation arose where it seemed like you no longer intend to take over the company. Could you please update us on the progress of the acquisition for NamePros readers? It is very much appreciated.
His account is no longer active
 
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I don't like this trend. It's a pity, it was a good site
 
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Last we heard litigation was being threatened. I doubt either one of them will talk publicly if thats the case or until it is resolved.

I do believe the sellers who use the platform deserve final answers so they can move on.
 
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I just received an offer on Alter. Does anyone know if sales are still possible on the platform? Has anyone sold anything there lately? Thank you!
 
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Oh, wow. I did not read this thread since the sale was announced. This was quite ... unexpected!
 
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Friends, write about the situation on Alter. I still can't add new domains to the marketplace
 
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I have a request in to update this article, but in meantime Alter users have received today and email from Deven Patel, CEO and Founder Alter, officially announcing that the sale had fallen through, and it was not possible to find another purchaser. Therefore Alter is about to shut down:

"On September 3rd, all remaining domain listings will be removed from our marketplace. Seller accounts will remain active until all pending installment sales are completed so payments can be cashed out."

Bob
 
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New email from today:


Hi there,

As you may know, the plan to close the Alter marketplace back in April was halted as a result of an acquisition offer. Unfortunately, that deal fell through as it seems like the buyer had signed our agreement in bad faith. And despite engaging with other interested parties, we weren't able to find Alter a new home.

So regrettably, we will have to continue down the original path of shutting down the marketplace. On September 3rd, all remaining domain listings will be removed from our marketplace. Seller accounts will remain active until all pending installment sales are completed so payments can be cashed out.

I would like to thank you again for your support and continued patience throughout this ordeal. It was truly a pleasure to have this opportunity to work with you over the last couple years. We wish you all the best in your future endeavors.

Sincerely,
Deven Patel
Founder & CEO
 
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New email from today:


Hi there,

As you may know, the plan to close the Alter marketplace back in April was halted as a result of an acquisition offer. Unfortunately, that deal fell through as it seems like the buyer had signed our agreement in bad faith. And despite engaging with other interested parties, we weren't able to find Alter a new home.

So regrettably, we will have to continue down the original path of shutting down the marketplace. On September 3rd, all remaining domain listings will be removed from our marketplace. Seller accounts will remain active until all pending installment sales are completed so payments can be cashed out.

I would like to thank you again for your support and continued patience throughout this ordeal. It was truly a pleasure to have this opportunity to work with you over the last couple years. We wish you all the best in your future endeavors.

Sincerely,
Deven Patel
Founder & CEO
Thanks for the update. It's a shame that there appeared to be great hope for a while for its revival, thanks to the Namepros forum. At least, finally clarity has come.
 
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