Afternic Sold to NameMedia

[Ron Jackson]

In our Lowdown column last night we reported that Afternic was about to be sold to NameMedia. The official word came today:

http://home.businesswire.com/portal...d=news_view&newsId=20061128005862&newsLang=en

Excerpts:
Pete Lamson, the Senior Vice President for NameMedia’s marketplace business, said “The Afternic acquisition advances our leadership position in creating an efficient marketplace for small and medium businesses to acquire domain names and insure a compelling digital identity.” Roger Collins and Michael Collins, who head Afternic’s executive team, will remain as leaders of the Afternic business. Lamson said that NameMedia intends to maintain both the Afternic and BuyDomains brands and trading platforms. The terms of the deal were not disclosed, and Afternic will remain in its Florida headquarters.

 

[Mark]

The Industry sites seem to be getting grabbed up by the Big boys everyday now - Though I can't see anything negative about Giving Afternic a shot in the arm in this case


Good Reading as always Duke :tu:

 

[Keynes]

Wow, this is an interesting (although not unexpected) development. Consolidation should serve BD and AF well on this one -- let's hope for some improvements from the latter...

 

[Picassoface]

I just posted this on "afternics ?" DiscussNames.com board ( posting it here in case it gets deleted there )....

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Now that BuyDomains owns afternic, if they want us to continue listing our names along with Theirs (which will obviously take precedence over Ours), they better throw the average domain lister a BIG BONE.
I can see no possible reason to Pay to list names here anymore when Sedo is Free and even takes a smaller cut in escrow.

I stuck with Afternic through all the bad talk, reserving my own negative comments till I could see the big picture and the reasons behind the strange changes. Now we know. And unless BuyDomains wants Afternic.com to turn into a simple "Redirect" for their own names only ( after we pull all ours out ), there had BETTER be NO MORE MEMBERSHIP FEES for sellers. And that is just a Small bone. Those of us with over 500 domains listed here (or some other appropriate #), should actually be Paid to list our large portfolios here as it makes Afternic a better site having More names.

So what is it going to be ?

Type in Afternic.com and be redirected to Buydomains.com ?

Or, keep Afternic as a Viable domain reseller site ?

Or - Get the top 20 or 30 domain owners to create our OWN "aftermarket" site. A site for the little guy to compete against the Big Guys. (a la movie "Dodgeball")

PS: to the former Afternic staff - is the domain name DiscussNames.com available for sale ? Some of us may be interested buyers...
Oh, and thanks for keeping us mushrooms in the dark....

 

[Keynes]

Picasso came out with both barrels blazing; you made a number of good points, although I believe you extended your concern a bit too far. Certainly there is concern that Afternic will become less of a force in the aftermarket, however, NameMedia recognizes the potential for a transactions-driven site: they may realize it is beneficial to eliminate membership fees and replace it with a buyer/seller-verification program a la Sedo. On the other hand, the largest domain owners are increasingly being bought out and consolidated into the portfolio-VCers, so it seems we should work with, and not against, the consolidation in the industry. I think this merger will be beneficial for Afternic, and we will hopefully see an extension of their reach as only a larger partner could provide. We probably won't get paid to list your domains, but we can look for a larger reach of the domain aftermarket site into mainstream commerce (as Fabulous did in partnering with CJ on aftermarket affiliate sales.)

 

[goodkarmaco]

Hi Picassoface.

Damage has been done by the WAY Afternic brought this sale around. That will be a long term detriment to them for those actions.

 

[000]

As always, thanks for the interesting read. Hopefully NameMedia can find a good balance between the sites.

 

[RareIQ]

interesting.................

 

[stscac]

Anyone smell something fishy with the numbers?

-Steve

 

[Grey_OwL]

That's quite interesting indeed..

 

[namethreads.com]

e-mail from Afternic: NameMedia Acquires Afternic

Dear Members,

There has been a big change at Afternic this month. The official announcement is included below. Roger and I thank all members for your loyal support through the last few years. We are both excited about staying with Afternic and believe that service and the opportunity to sell your names are going to continue to improve. Afternic is now a part of an organization with the largest and best domain sales staff in the world. There are many things that we can and will do now to promote this marketplace that were beyond our reach before. Look forward to great things ahead.

There is already an immediate benefit to members who are parking with Afternic. We have joined with ActiveAudience as our house parking provider to offer the best paying parking program available. If you are currently parking your domains with us, thank you. I hope you enjoy the improved payouts. If you have not yet tried our parking, or have not tried it in a long time, please give it a try.

NameMedia Acquires Afternic

Waltham, MA -- 11/28/2006 - NameMedia, the industry leader in Direct Search and Premium Domain Name Sales, today announced that it has acquired Afternic, Inc., the industry's pioneer marketplace for the resale of domain names. Afternic will join with BuyDomains, NameMedia's existing domain name marketplace, in creating the leading platform for the domain aftermarket. Afternic enjoys a strong following in the domain name resale and service marketplace, and is recognized for superior customer service and innovative sales strategies. Afternic's Domain Name Marketplace has in excess of 1.8 million premium domains available for purchase supported by complementary products such as a domain name appraisal service, a domain purchase assistance team; secure domain name escrow services, and a platform for generating advertising revenue for domain owners.

"The Afternic acquisition advances our leadership position in creating an efficient marketplace for small and medium businesses to acquire domain names and insure a compelling digital identity," said Pete Lamson, the Senior Vice President for NameMedia's marketplace business.

Roger and Michael Collins, Afternic's executive team, will remain as leaders of the Afternic business. "We are excited by our new association with NameMedia and BuyDomains," said Roger Collins, Afternic's General Manager. "NameMedia is the fastest growing and best managed company in our industry. Our combined offerings, along with planned future products and services, will offer many benefits to our shared customers".

Lamson said that NameMedia intends to maintain both the Afternic and BuyDomains brands and trading platforms. Afternic members will continue to experience the same level of service and value to which they are accustomed. The terms of the deal were not disclosed, and Afternic will remain in its Florida headquarters.

About NameMedia

NameMedia is the industry leader in Direct Search and the marketplace for premium domain names. The company leverages the power of Direct Search through a proprietary publishing platform that creates revenue-generating search destinations, including the company's network of vertical online properties in over 100 categories that include travel, finance, dating, health, shopping and technology. NameMedia also has the industry's largest marketplace for buying and selling premium domain names. NameMedia is a privately-held, venture-backed, rapidly growing company headquartered outside Boston in Waltham, Massachusetts. For more information, visit www.namemedia.com.

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[wot]

We shall see, I cancelled my subscription with them as I believe many others did.

Perhaps a new brush will sweep clean , but if they are keeping the old guard that is unlikely. This type of acquisition needs a clean out and new mgmt. JMO

 

[fonzie_007]

NameMedia (BuyDomains) acquires Afternic

Things just keep getting worse for Afternic.

NameMedia Acquires Afternic

Waltham, MA -- 11/28/2006 - NameMedia, the industry leader in Direct Search and Premium Domain Name Sales, today announced that it has acquired Afternic, Inc., the industry's pioneer marketplace for the resale of domain names. Afternic will join with BuyDomains, NameMedia's existing domain name marketplace, in creating the leading platform for the domain aftermarket. Afternic enjoys a strong following in the domain name resale and service marketplace, and is recognized for superior customer service and innovative sales strategies. Afternic's Domain Name Marketplace has in excess of 1.8 million premium domains available for purchase supported by complementary products such as a domain name appraisal service, a domain purchase assistance team; secure domain name escrow services, and a platform for generating advertising revenue for domain owners.

"The Afternic acquisition advances our leadership position in creating an efficient marketplace for small and medium businesses to acquire domain names and insure a compelling digital identity," said Pete Lamson, the Senior Vice President for NameMedia's marketplace business.

Roger and Michael Collins, Afternic's executive team, will remain as leaders of the Afternic business. "We are excited by our new association with NameMedia and BuyDomains," said Roger Collins, Afternic's General Manager. "NameMedia is the fastest growing and best managed company in our industry. Our combined offerings, along with planned future products and services, will offer many benefits to our shared customers".

Lamson said that NameMedia intends to maintain both the Afternic and BuyDomains brands and trading platforms. Afternic members will continue to experience the same level of service and value to which they are accustomed. The terms of the deal were not disclosed, and Afternic will remain in its Florida headquarters.

BuyDomains (SaggyDimes from Snapnames) is the company that offered $25 for a LLL.com. See http://www.namepros.com/domain-name...d-25-for-a-lll-com.html?highlight=$25+lll.com

Now I'm really NOT going to renew my membership...

 

[goodkarmaco]

I want to address somethng that Afternic says about their high payouts of ppc. They state "we pay the highest ppc in the industry" Lol I had a couple hundred names parked there for two years and made about $1.50 per month!

When I moved them about a year ago I made more than one years ppc that Afternic made me in my first week at a different parking service. Their parking pages never resolved and when they did pennies came in. So leaving them will not hurt your bottom line.

 

[goodkarmaco]

Very good point Wot,

It amazes me how some members of Afternic have been silent and are not making a stand and continue as usual with them.

Surely we will want to band together to make the statement that domaining is a professional business and certain standards of dialogue are required between the business owners and the domain members.

 

[cache]

I hope they will offer free membership

 

[goodkarmaco]

They will not give membership back unless you ask for it. You will want to state because of the new policy you want your membership fee back. Go for it!

 

[AzN]

BuyDomains (SaggyDimes from Snapnames) is the company that offered $25 for a LLL.com.

I still see him but he changed to SaggyNickels
He bid $60 for a LL.org :hehe:

 

[Mark]

Merged Several Threads together Folks

Lets not open a new thread everyday for the same News - Thanks :tu:

 

[matt_bodis]

This statement from them really doesn't make much sense:

"small and medium businesses to acquire domain names and insure a compelling digital identity"

Why small and medium businesses? Businesses of all sizes buy a domain if they need it. It ticks me off when they just say stuff to say stuff. And in my opinion, this has been a bad purchase. I really wouldn't want a company that is on its decline with tons of negative feedback from its users.

Let's face it. Afternic is dying.

PS

90% of parking sponsors say they are the highest paying in the industry. Haha. :D

 

[goodkarmaco]

Cfguru,

Thats it in a nutshell, they are going out. I would feel bad, but they brought it on themselves by turning on loyal supporters and labeling owners of decent names as along with those who promote hate and violence.

Then to they made many statements that are a joke.

They pay out the most for parking, lol. They have one of the worst parking programs and I doubt the new one they are announcing will be any better. Nothing relsolved and thus no click thru's.

Thats the thing with most large auction houses. Years ago they forgot about the domain business and focused solely on ppc parking. Thus they got more and more names, without spending money for advertising to get end users to actually buy names.

In my opinion Afternic did not take the lead in generating end users to come in and buy names.

They had no real advertising budget for that.. too easy to sit back and make money from the parked pages. Thats easy to see when they had four million names for sale and the average daily sales of the names in Afternic is 4-8 domains!

Last month overture for Afternic was 212! Thats pitiful. No wonder most of the names sold were to other domainers.. no traffic to the site.

No, all they focused on was parking revenue. If sales came in fine, but no money got plowed back into the domain business and mostly names sold between other domainers.

These are my personal opinions.

 

[ripley]

Don't you think Afternic's evil name purge was becuase of BuyDomains? Didn't BuyDomains have an enormous liquidation of their adult and gambling names?

I'm sure Afternic was just preparing for the buyout and that the purge was motivated by BuyDomains' lack of interest in adult and gambling domains.

ripley.

 

[goodkarmaco]

Oh yes,

that makes perfect sense.

What does not make sense is how they gave the domain business a bad rap by labeling owners who are dealing in perfectly respectable and legal names as those who do not give the proper image of the domain business.

That declaration will have a negative impact on the domain business for a very long time.

They have a real mess on their hands now as you can see many people getting upset because they have no handle on the adding and the omitting of the names by their software.

Many folks are complaining in the forum saying things like " I got my hummer- hummer name deleted. Why?, I see hummer listed by another member. Lol.. Afternic is now a good place for newbies as pros will not tolerate the stupitiy of it all.

Sure they say we have some glitches and just contact us with the rejected name or name and we will take a look at it and possibly reinstate the name.

Ha, as a pro who needs that kind of hassle?

Bottom line, people who say why not place the name in their auction house as it is another avenue for selling are in effect saying, "so whats a little abuse".

Any domain owner who sees a place that has about one and a half million domains for sale will want to know the odds of selling in such a place.

Look at the sales stats for any given day and you will draw the conclusion that a half dozen names selling in one day at Afternic out of one and a half million listed are worse odds than most State lotteries.

Go ahead.. its your choice to put your names anywhere you want.

For me, I want my efforts to at least have some chance to be rewarded.

 

[ripley]

Sure, of course. I mentioned that because I'm trying to puzzle out what the strategy was here. This is important to me because I want to be able to understand the motivations of such a large domain holder so that I can assess what impact their decision might have on my business.

My personal opinion is that Afternic as a domain marketplace for people other than BuyDomains is probably down the tube. If BuyDomains were really serious about pushing Afternic as a viable domain marketplace, why eliminate several enormous categories worth of commission revenue? It makes little business sense. Why, then?

Because BuyDomains doesn't have any of those sorts of names. They don't care about them.

To me, this means that BuyDomains' plans for Afternic will be to simply be an enormous marketplace for *their* names. Selling other peoples' names will be less of a priority, I would think. So that's a knock.

I wasn't particularly upset about the purge, on a personal level. It just confused me. I wasn't one of the people calling for a boycott.

But now I'm rethinking my membership there. Here's why:

Do you really want an enormous competitor seeing every offer that gets made at one of the two largest domain marketplaces in existence? Do you want them seeing which get accepted, which rejected? How negotiations go on which domains? This is all business intelligence that is *absolutely invaluable*. Imagine how much it would mean to your business to be able to see and track how every offer on every domain on a domain marketplace like Afternic played out -- or to be able to see the reserve prices on every domain on a domain marketplace.

Lots. And I'm not sure I want to help BuyDomains out with that kind of information.

ripley.

 

[Keynes]

This statement from them really doesn't make much sense:

"small and medium businesses to acquire domain names and insure a compelling digital identity"

This statement fits into their model: BuyDomains is for the lucrative/high-end/corporate investors/buyers in domains; they actively market in WSJ and elsewhere. Then, they send the smaller buyers to Afternic. This tiered system heavily favours their own portfolio, surely. This all makes sense in their move to go public (hence no "sin" domains) and to ensure the high end buyers remain in their pockets...