information Brent Oxley Loses Access to Create.com, Plus Millions of Dollars Worth of His Domains

[James Iles]

Brent Oxley, the founder of HostGator, has been accruing a portfolio of ultra-premium domain names since he sold his hosting company for close to $300 million in 2013.

With purchases such as Give.com for $500,000, Broker.com for $375,000, and Texas.com for $1,007,500, Oxley has spent millions of dollars over the past few years accumulating this collection. According to his website, the portfolio is worth more than $25 million.

Oxley has now, however, lost access to a proportion of his portfolio

Read the full report on my blog

 

[oldtimer]

There is a lot of noise in this thread. Difficult to figure things out. But the contents of the emails and messages are very disturbing. Threats against family members, praying to a devil god for death, etc. This is not going to end well for someone. It's going to be a stain on domain investing.

Still don't understand what is the plaintiff's goal. Is it compensation? Apparently he feels unfairly treated. So what would be fair? If the issue is compensation for brokerage or bringing parties to the table, then why is a registrar involved?

I believe that this is more about the clash between the different cultures than anything else.

I don't believe that this is just about any alleged unpaid commissions, the plaintiff who supposedly has used his talents and connections to help with these million dollar domain names rightly or wrongly has been under the expectations to have been set for life because of the continuation of the alleged relationship.

IMO

 

[The Rover]

I'm moving my domains away from GoDaddy. I just read from this thread they shut down Gab as well.

Americans will really drown themselves trying to be nice and "just" haha. Anybody who has dealt in business with the thirld world would see this from miles away. Even if it would be Indian court decision I would expect them to ask for a American one. This is insanity.

As far as I'm concerned this company is just too big of a liability. Red flags have been going off for a long time now anyways.

Indeed, big red flags for a while and it's really become obvious in the last 2 years. When they cancelled AR15.com, and countless other smaller sites that are "pro american" they always cite very ambiguous reasons that are open to interpretation. Ever since they canceled "Daily Stormer" (which was indeed a crazy hateful site that should have been canceled) they've used THAT as the future template, and they're lumping various sites that are simply against their corporate ideology with actual hateful or violent sites like Daily Stormer. Pretty transparent tactics.

I actually brought up these issues in a different thread, and how GoDaddy's increasingly partisan ideology is affecting policy, and was absolutely shit on. Ironically, the attacking posts from a few other namepro members sadly underscored how cancel culture is driven by ideology. You'd think that would be obvious, but apparently many folks are living in delusion.

 

[oldtimer]

I thought you just delegated this to @Bob Hawkes

Will you play an essential role in this as well?

My current health condition doesn't allow me to take on any big projects like this,

But my head is still full of good ideas,


And as someone who cares about the Registrant Rights (and People's Rights in general) I will keep a close eye on anything that comes out of this project.

IMO

 

[branding]

I believe that's the route that we need to take.

IMO

I agree. It would be amazing but it's not that easy to pull off. You'd have to have volume, infrastructure, legal staff and know how to pull that off.

With a lot of ICANN accredited registrars participating in a race to the bottom (pricing), so little margin, it's not very cost effective unless you get involved in upselling/add-ons.

Look at all the 'boys' who are selling .com with little to none markup. They get their profit elsewhere... then there's the risk of people abandoning ship. Biggest issue remains, ICANN accreditation is a costly and time consuming process. Hard to recoup for just a bunch of domainers. It'll eat into your sales profit big time.

That being said, I love the idea, get together and protect your assets. Food for thought.

 

[oldtimer]

It'll eat into your sales profit big time.

If it's being run by domainers themselves maybe making a profit won't be the first priority (of course the operating costs have to be factored in).

Our Registrar has to be everything that others are not, as far as providing the best customer service and being fair and unbiased when it comes to protecting the Registrants Rights and respecting the freedom of speech for the law abiding people.

And more importantly there should be total transparency and accountability in the way that things are being handled and we have to make sure that it won't engage in behaviors and actions that are in direct and aggressive competition with the Registrants.

Of course we also have to make sure that our Registrar is not hijacked by any ideological or extremist groups and or individuals from any side.

By the way lets wait for Bob to make a thread for this before our posts get deleted here for being off topic.

IMO

 

[branding]

By the way lets wait for Bob to make a thread for this before our posts get deleted here as being off topic.

Agreed. Let's not waste our thoughts and time on things that may get deleted by the Mods, although I sincerely think they make the right judgement calls. ( Shameless a**kissing )

If @Bob Hawkes opens a thread, it would be interesting to get some thoughts on the matter from Brent @create.com as he has experience in forming a registrar and is a 'premium' investor. Same goes for people like @Rob Monster. Looking forward to it!

 

[DN Playbook]

Our Registrar has to be everything that others are not, as far as providing the best customer service and being fair and unbiased when it comes to protecting the Registrants Rights and respecting the freedom of speech for the law abiding people.

An Open Source registrar is a fascinating proposition. Of course, since there is a need for infrastructure and customer service there would be naturally a need for profit. At least to cover the expenses of support and tech staff. This would be secondary to mobilizing the domaining community to raise the necessary funding.

 

[Rob Monster]

Indeed, big red flags for a while and it's really become obvious in the last 2 years. When they cancelled AR15.com, and countless other smaller sites that are "pro american" they always cite very ambiguous reasons that are open to interpretation. Ever since they canceled "Daily Stormer" (which was indeed a crazy hateful site that should have been canceled) they've used THAT as the future template, and they're lumping various sites that are simply against their corporate ideology with actual hateful or violent sites like Daily Stormer. Pretty transparent tactics.

I actually brought up these issues in a different thread, and how GoDaddy's increasingly partisan ideology is affecting policy, and was absolutely shit on. Ironically, the attacking posts from a few other namepro members sadly underscored how cancel culture is driven by ideology. You'd think that would be obvious, but apparently many folks are living in delusion.

Gab.com and AR15.com were both Godaddy refugee domains that ended up at Epik. Create.com does use some Epik technology. As yet the domain never moved. Perhaps we now know why!

The Gab.com story was chronicled here:

https://www.namepros.com/threads/so...y-24-hours-to-transfer-or-suspension.1107245/

As for AR15.com, while there is a rising tide of anti-gun propaganda, AR15.com is run by class people who understand the law.

There is a strong case that Godaddy's politics greatly shifted since KKR came on board. I think you can more or less set the watch to when it likely happened.

On August 17, 2018, the GDDY stock price was over $80 a share and a large amount of smart money cashed out on the same day:

https://www.secform4.com/insider-trading/1609711-4.htm

Bob Parsons left the Board a couple months later on October 3, 2018.

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-rel...rom-company-board-of-directors-300723251.html

The firing of Gab by Godaddy happened on October 28, 2018.

I believe it is very safe to say that once Founder Parsons left the Board, Godaddy was a different company. As near as I can tell, the smart money cashed out when the soul left the bridge of the ship.

Since then, it appears Godaddy became a tool of a political machine that aligned to a partisan agenda that likely has a less interest in empowering private ownership of domains.

Since Aman Bhutani was a member of the World Economic Forum, and sits on the Board of the New York Times, it is logical, that he has fully embraced the WEF Great Reset agenda. Look it up.

If you think the domain business changed in 2018. I think you are right.

 

[Lox]

If you think the domain business changed in 2018. I think you are right.

Domain names using Domains By Proxy

 

[YourFutureLawyer.com]

It may not have a current effect on the stock price now I agree. I’m not a financial advisor either way but I will say when I invest in stocks I usually go for a long hold depending on the stock. Knowing what godaddy is currently facing as an investor has me opting out of the potential news coming out down the road of a huge godaddy law suit which they probably very well deserve at this point but I’m not an attorney (yet) don’t quote me,
When companies get news out especially on WSJ Or stock trading platforms, related to them being sued or investigated, in my experience causes a drop in the price. These are all things to consider here in this situation as an investor who is thinking long term. Originally I saw the value of that stock in the long run running high. The fact that they are willing to risk their company reputation and the effects of a potential legal suit over a 12$ filing in another company by someone clearly showing lack of contracts or any evidence that we have at least seek so far, to lock a huge domain portfolio is concerning to say the lease.
My point was that, they aren’t even considering the effect long term of this namepros post and their actions. What happened to Brent is simply heartbreaking and again I’m not a lawyer I’m not a financial advisor. I’m just a person who invests and works hard, believes in reasonableness and justice. This in my opinion is completely wrong and I hope the go daddy people constantly monitoring this thread start weighing out the effects on their company and the damage that will be caused by it. Since they have caused so much damage with no efforts to even attempt to reasonably resolve this matter, they should consider long term how badly this may bite them in the a**. - just thinking

 

[DN Playbook]

What is going on here? Can we end this charade? GoDaddy, unlock the domains. Let it play out in the court of law, if necessary. Even if the domains are transferred, it will not matter. This thread is going way off track.

 

[The Rover]

Gab.com and AR15.com were both Godaddy refugee domains that ended up at Epik. Create.com does use some Epik technology. As yet the domain never moved. Perhaps we now know why!

The Gab.com story was chronicled here:

https://www.namepros.com/threads/so...y-24-hours-to-transfer-or-suspension.1107245/

As for AR15.com, while there is a rising tide of anti-gun propaganda, AR15.com is run by class people who understand the law.

There is a strong case that Godaddy's politics greatly shifted since KKR came on board. I think you can more or less set the watch to when it likely happened.

Show attachment 185137

On August 17, 2018, the GDDY stock price was over $80 a share and a large amount of smart money cashed out on the same day:

https://www.secform4.com/insider-trading/1609711-4.htm

Show attachment 185138

Bob Parsons left the Board a couple months later on October 3, 2018.

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-rel...rom-company-board-of-directors-300723251.html

The firing of Gab by Godaddy happened on October 28, 2018.

I believe it is very safe to say that once Founder Parsons left the Board, Godaddy was a different company. As near as I can tell, the smart money cashed out when the soul left the bridge of the ship.

Since then, it appears Godaddy became a tool of a political machine that aligned to a partisan agenda that likely has a less interest in empowering private ownership of domains.

Since Aman Bhutani was a member of the World Economic Forum, and sits on the Board of the New York Times, it is logical, that he has fully embraced the WEF Great Reset agenda. Look it up.

If you think the domain business changed in 2018. I think you are right.

Extremely well said @Rob Monster! The data is clear, and it's amazing to see the ideological "split" even here on namepros. Half of the folks here somehow absolutely refuse to accept that much of this recent nonsense is (at the very least) partially due to GoDaddy's partisan ideology, while others see it for what it is. The more people look into this case with Brent, the clearer it becomes that it's not purely a result of "overreaching corporate policy". From what others are saying, Aman was (and continues to be) fully briefed on this situation. GoDaddy will deny it until they're blue in the face, but it's rather clear that at the end of the day, someone with authority at GoDaddy doesn't like Brent. This would have been resolved long ago, if that wasn't the case.

 

[The Rover]

This thread is going way off track.

I believe it's all connected. I'd argue that this thread is only off track to those who either deny or who are simply apathetic that there's a strong possibility that GoDaddy's political ideology is involved with Brent's domains in one way or another. IMO, It's a little further along that just speculation, given GoDaddy's fact pattern not only with this case, but other cases as well. Occam's razor is really beginning to apply here at this point, and at the very least, worthy of discussion.

 

[Samer]

I believe it's all connected. I'd argue that this thread is only off track to those who either deny or who are simply apathetic that there's a strong possibility that GoDaddy's political ideology is involved with Brent's domains in one way or another. IMO, It's a little further along that just speculation, given GoDaddy's fact pattern not only with this case, but other cases as well. Occam's razor is really beginning to apply here at this point, and at the very least, worthy of discussion.

probably “off-track” if still holding GDDY shares

 

[The Rover]

it’s probably “off-track” if still holding GDDY shares

Touche!

You're 100% correct.

Waiting for the obligatory "enough with the conspiracy theories!" in 1...2...3..

 

[carob]

However this gets resolved, many are expressing uncertainty about keeping domains at Godaddy and quite a few have transferred out.

Does Godaddy care about losing registrations? Maybe not. At full price you could optimistically say in round figures they make $10 a year on each, and the domains held by domainers are unlikely to buy more lucrative services like hosting. So Godaddy may be prepared to lose those registrations to keep the status quo.

But there is another Godaddy operation where loss of trust could really hurt: auctions of expiring domains. High prices - and profits - there depend on multiple high bids, and who wants to spend a lot on a domain that could just get locked and be rendered unsaleable, especially if it has history.

 

[The Rover]

However this gets resolved, many are expressing uncertainty about keeping domains at Godaddy and quite a few have transferred out.

Does Godaddy care about losing registrations? Maybe not. At full price you could optimistically say in round figures they make $10 a year on each, and the domains held by domainers are unlikely to buy more lucrative services like hosting. So Godaddy may be prepared to lose those registrations to keep the status quo.

But there is another Godaddy operation where loss of trust could really hurt: auctions of expiring domains. High prices - and profits - there depend on multiple high bids, and who wants to spend a lot on a domain that could just get locked and be rendered unsaleable, especially if it has history.

Solid points.

 

[DN Playbook]

I believe it's all connected. I'd argue that this thread is only off track to those who either deny or who are simply apathetic that there's a strong possibility that GoDaddy's political ideology is involved with Brent's domains in one way or another. IMO, It's a little further along that just speculation, given GoDaddy's fact pattern not only with this case, but other cases as well. Occam's razor is really beginning to apply here at this point, and at the very least, worthy of discussion.

Political ideology is one thing. I don't think domainers in general care. But I do think what they mostly care about is getting this thing to get over with. This isn't worth writing a story about. GD needs to explain their side. @barybadrinath needs to explain his side. So we can all go back to work or sleep.

 

[Gro]

Be like family to your friends, a friend to strangers, and a stranger to your enemies.
I hope this gets resolved soon.

 

[The Rover]

Political ideology is one thing. I don't think domainers in general care.

You're likely right...until their own domains or websites are canceled without notice. Obviously, Brent's story is getting a lot traction merely due to the value of his portfolio. However, what about smaller domainers? GoDaddy has already made it clear that they're willing to interfere with an individual's domains and website(s) while offering nothing more than extremely ambiguous reasons.

This isn't worth writing a story about. GD needs to explain their side. @barybadrinath needs to explain his side. So we can all go back to work or sleep.

I strongly disagree. If GoDaddy is merely using corporate political ideology as a means to lock down domains, then that's pretty dang serious. Do we know for sure that's what happened here? No, however, at the same time, I'm not interested in quickly sweeping potential corrupt and dishonest corporate policies under the rug.

@barybadrinath is an irrelevant distraction at this point since GoDaddy has yet to offer a single reasonable explanation for locking down Brent's domains. Unless we're shown otherwise, it doesn't appear they had a reasonable justification despite @barybadrinath filing in India. GoDaddy is majorly fumbling this, and the longer it goes on, the more curious it gets.

 

[DN Playbook]

You're likely right...until their own domains or websites are canceled without notice. Obviously, Brent's story is getting a lot traction merely due to the value of his portfolio. However, what about smaller domainers? GoDaddy has already made it clear that they're willing to interfere with an individual's domains and website(s) while offering nothing more than extremely ambiguous reasons.



I strongly disagree. If GoDaddy is merely using corporate political ideology to lock down domains, then that's pretty dang serious. Do we know for sure that's what happened here? No, however, at the same time, I'm not interested in quickly sweeping potential corrupt and dishonest corporate policies under the rug.

@barybadrinath is an irrelevant distraction at this point since GoDaddy has yet to offer a single reasonable explanation for locking down Brent's domains. Unless we're shown otherwise, it doesn't appear that had a reasonable justification despite @barybadrinath filing in India. GoDaddy is majorly fumbling this, and the longer it goes on, the more curious it gets.

Certainly, an official statement from GoDaddy will be most welcome and beneficial. What makes this a messy situation is that a registrar is in the middle of it all.

 

[The Rover]

Certainly, an official statement from GoDaddy will be most welcome and beneficial. What makes this a messy situation is that a registrar is in the middle of it all.

Agreed. I also don't believe that 50% of these comments would have ever been made if GoDaddy's ideology wasn't so divisive and their previous actions with other domains and websites weren't so questionable. They could at least try and dial back the virtue signaling. At the end of the day, they're doing this to themselves.

 

[Wali Dahot]

However this gets resolved, many are expressing uncertainty about keeping domains at Godaddy and quite a few have transferred out.

Does Godaddy care about losing registrations? Maybe not. At full price you could optimistically say in round figures they make $10 a year on each, and the domains held by domainers are unlikely to buy more lucrative services like hosting. So Godaddy may be prepared to lose those registrations to keep the status quo.

But there is another Godaddy operation where loss of trust could really hurt: auctions of expiring domains. High prices - and profits - there depend on multiple high bids, and who wants to spend a lot on a domain that could just get locked and be rendered unsaleable, especially if it has history.

Exactly. Godaddy isnt giving a sh*t to domainers transfering domains out of Godaddy But it will hurt them if domainers stop using its Auction platform, dont compete with HD bot and let it take all the domains for peanuts and let Dropcatch catch all the profits in the end !!

 

[barybadrinath]

Puneet just emailed this to me at 12:54 pm tonight. “Baby Brent, some good story for you.
Down here in Kharkov, once upon a time we had a judge that was collecting memorabilia. He accumulated so much from bribes until somone cut his head off and his sons head off. I kid you not it has been documented in the news if you want to get a visual.”

Go broker a deal with him, have fun,

Can you show everyone the proof that i emailed you whatever you have said above.
Are you involved in hacking of my wife's account as well. 2-3 days ago when you were crying here and were accusing me of harassing residents of your whole county , that day you mailed my wife and tried to put a fear in them saying that I have been defamed etc etc on Namepros. Is it u in making 4 unauthorised transaction from her bank account which resulted in a total loss of 22000 rs. Well we are filing a police complaint for it.

Initially you hired sharjil to pressurize my family members and now new clown of vpn.com has been hired. Lol.

When you are fighting the cases in india , usa from last more than 1 yr , you Intentionally kept quiet and now suddenly you have started to act like a crying Baby whose pencil has been taken by me.
Also pls do not threaten me Brent sir. First you tried defaming me in front of my parents , then you tried defaming me in front of court , and now you are trying defaming me in front of domainers. No issues. You can try. Lol.
GoDaddy has acted according to the law and I don't think your pressure tactics will make an international company to do contempt of court.

By the way u never answered -

1) did u not offer me money to extort from GoDaddy.

2) I strongly feel that hacking of Monte Cahn account and then subsequent attempts made to hack my account through it have some connection with you Brent sir which must be investigated properly by authorities.

3) pls ask your hired goons to stop sending threat and spam emails to my family members. Your fight is with me. Please do not drag them in all this.

4) can anyone access financial details for drivetanks.com , if someone can I will ask them to trace the owner of tank which was bought by ox ranch from usa citizen. I will request domainer detectives to trace the lady and ask her the hardships meted out to her to get the tank at very cheap price when her father died ( who was initially refusing to sell tank to drivetanks for cheap price).

5) Shall I tell everyone about the missing 6 antelopes from your ranch. Shall I tell them the whole story .

 

[WGS_Thunder]

It may not have a current effect on the stock price now I agree. I’m not a financial advisor either way but I will say when I invest in stocks I usually go for a long hold depending on the stock. Knowing what godaddy is currently facing as an investor has me opting out of the potential news coming out down the road of a huge godaddy law suit which they probably very well deserve at this point but I’m not an attorney (yet) don’t quote me,
When companies get news out especially on WSJ Or stock trading platforms, related to them being sued or investigated, in my experience causes a drop in the price. These are all things to consider here in this situation as an investor who is thinking long term. Originally I saw the value of that stock in the long run running high. The fact that they are willing to risk their company reputation and the effects of a potential legal suit over a 12$ filing in another company by someone clearly showing lack of contracts or any evidence that we have at least seek so far, to lock a huge domain portfolio is concerning to say the lease.
My point was that, they aren’t even considering the effect long term of this namepros post and their actions. What happened to Brent is simply heartbreaking and again I’m not a lawyer I’m not a financial advisor. I’m just a person who invests and works hard, believes in reasonableness and justice. This in my opinion is completely wrong and I hope the go daddy people constantly monitoring this thread start weighing out the effects on their company and the damage that will be caused by it. Since they have caused so much damage with no efforts to even attempt to reasonably resolve this matter, they should consider long term how badly this may bite them in the a**. - just thinking

The 1 month chart isn't stellar IMO