sales Escrow.com purchased for $7.5 million

[equity78]

Freelancer.com announces the acquisition of Escrow.com and completion of capital raising

Some big news for a Sunday night, Escrow.com getting acquired by Freelancer.com. Back in September of 2014, Escrow.com purchased Agreed.com.

SYDNEY, April 27, 2015:

Freelancer.com, the world’s largest freelancing and crowdsourcing marketplace,today announced that it had entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Escrow.com from a private investor for US$7.5 million in cash, and completed a AUD$10 million placement of ordinary shares to institutional investors.

http://www.thedomains.com/2015/04/26/escrow-com-purchased-for-7-5million/

 

[sbweb]

Sounds like Escrow.com was motivated to sell for whatever reason.

It seems like the decision was made completely based on financial numbers (profit). If you look at the big picture of this business, it is worth way more than $7.5 mill.

I'm also thinking Flippa offering their own escrow service may have hurt Escrow.com's business to some degree.

 

[abaiti]

I have never used Escrow service before, but I often work with Freela. What I can't understand is why the Freelancer.com not develop your own serves like Escrow? They have any facilities to create own one. Why they bought it for $7,5 mln?

 

[hxp]

I have never used Escrow service before, but I often work with Freela. What I can't understand is why the Freelancer.com not develop your own serves like Escrow? They have any facilities to create own one. Why they bought it for $7,5 mln?

I'd say they eliminated a few birds with this one transaction. They get rid of competition, acquire users/traffic, acquire a turnkey operation, and ofc the domain itself is damn good.

 

[abaiti]

money for money. Okay

 

[jamesau]

Good opening for a new competitor. Anybody got a few million seed funding to spare?

 

[dollarfield]

Friends I think, Escrow.com cannot be trusted anymore. I read a couple of blog posts today on the web and was appalled to see many negative comments about freelancer.com There are instances how domainers ave lost both domains and money while using freemarket. It would be better Flippa and Sedo can enter agreement with a neutral third party Escrow service like DN.com, Escrowhill.com.

 

[kawalsukhi]

I'd say they eliminated a few birds with this one transaction. They get rid of competition, acquire users/traffic, acquire a turnkey operation, and ofc the domain itself is damn good.

Rightly said DONE all in one GO!

 

[vdonline]

How come it's just
$7.5 million?

 

[vicho]

Must be more to it than that... Escrow.com is a super premium domain. I see escrow services only getting more necessary as online business gains momentum in this mobile-friendly society.

This makes some sense...the commercial value of domains often overrides expenditure...

 

[Brandon Abbey]

It has now been ten days. I have spent considerable time with Matt Barrie and others on the executive team I can say this is a win for our customers, our employees, our former owner and Freelancer. The Freelancer team is already deep into product enhancements, process improvements and creating an exceptional customer experience. The only changes you will see from Escrow.com are for the better. Very exciting times here.

 

[Brandon Abbey]

I have used Escrow.com and EscrowHill.com, Andee Hill came from Escrow.com so might be worth checking out. Do your homework, they are not cleared to transact in certain states however.

To be fully transparent they are an advertiser on TLDinvestors.com but I have used the company, their premium service does take possession of the domain and the funds.

$4,000 sale on EscrowHill using Premium service would be $125 on Escrow.com basic it would be $130, Premier $252.

To add a little clarity to this. Regarding the "Premier" pricing, with Escrow.com it involves accepting a credit card for payment, paying the merchant fees and assuming the associated risks. According to their website Escrowhill does not accept credit card for payment so they are not subject to any merchant fees or PCI compliance requirements. I do agree with your statement about doing your homework when choosing an escrow company.

 

[Andee Hill]

To add a little clarity to this. Regarding the "Premier" pricing, with Escrow.com it involves accepting a credit card for payment, paying the merchant fees and assuming the associated risks. According to their website Escrowhill does not accept credit card for payment so they are not subject to any merchant fees or PCI compliance requirements. I do agree with your statement about doing your homework when choosing an escrow company.

It is correct that EscrowHill.com does not currently offer the higher priced payment option of credit card therefore we do not require a PCI compliance which is a security requirement associated with storing and processing credit card data.
What we do offer is Premium Escrow. A true escrow where the funds and domain are held in escrow and no review period is offered to the buyer which can delay the payment to the seller.
Also note that we are a registered NZ Financial Service provider and we have passed and are subject to future government audits just as our US competitor.

 

[Tyrone Mizer]

It is correct that EscrowHill.com does not currently offer the higher priced payment option of credit card therefore we do not require a PCI compliance which is a security requirement associated with storing and processing credit card data.
What we do offer is Premium Escrow. A true escrow where the funds and domain are held in escrow and no review period is offered to the buyer which can delay the payment to the seller.
Also note that we are a registered NZ Financial Service provider and we have passed and are subject to future government audits just as our US competitor.

How does this affect EscrowHill becoming qualified in other states? I hope it doesn't and that you will be successful....

Respondents were ordered to cease and desist from engaging in
unauthorized money services business activities in Texas, including advertising to and solicitation of persons in Texas,

dob.texas.gov/public/uploads/files/Laws-Regulations/orders/2015-009. pdf

 

[Andee Hill]

@ Tyrone, I can't help notice that it seems you registered as a new user for the sole purpose of posting this link.

Our site clearly states we do not accept transactions from persons in the US state of Texas.

 

[Shimmy]

Hello Brandon Abbey, what is your response to when Freelancer tries not to pay domain sellers because buyers do chargebacks, like in this thread:

https://www.namepros.com/threads/th...market-com-a-k-a-freelancer-com-again.855577/

I was a big Escrow.com fan, but like many have trust issues with Freelancer

 

[Brandon Abbey]

Hi Shimmy,

I don't have any specific details on the above mentioned situation. With no knowledge I really can't respond either way. What I can say is Escrow.com will be run separately from Freelancer as a stand alone company, much the same as it is today, with significantly more resources.

As I have always said, when choosing an escrow company please do your due diligence. The company should be licensed (much different than registered), bonded, insured and government audited.

Best regards,
Brandon

 

[Shimmy]

6 days ago your PM said you would look into it. I 100% believe that you did , so what happened? Freelancer just refused to give you the details? That's very shady of them.

 

[Andee Hill]

Registering in NZ is very similar to Licensing in California. Both require government audits. Escrow Hill Limited is audited yearly, not just randomly like the state of California and Arizona audit their licensees. In addition, all of our accounts are audited, not just the USD account.
I agree. Do your homework. Do not assume a company follows regulations just because they say they do.

 

[Joseph Green]

Greenberg & Lieberman acquires EscrowHill.

And then there were two: Escrow.com and DN.com

Best wishes to you on your next venture, @Andee Hill!

 

[Jasonn]

Greenberg & Lieberman acquires EscrowHill.

And then there were two: Escrow.com and DN.com

Best wishes to you on your next venture, @Andee Hill!

well that didn't last long..

 

[Joseph Green]

Freelancer.com completes $7.5 million purchase of Escrow.com

April 26th to November 2nd, 2015.

That took a while!

 

[Soofi]

Freelancer.com completes $7.5 million purchase of Escrow.com

April 26th to November 2nd, 2015.

That took a while!

Alot goes into such deals my friend and the reason we had to miss Brandon Abbey (Founder - Escrow.com) at DomainX 2015 Conference

 

[Brandon Abbey]

There was quite a lot of due diligence required by our licensing agencies regarding Freelancer and they passed the test. This was all done to protect your interests. I'm not sure everyone realizes all the requirements of operating an online escrow company, i.e., insurance, government audits, bonding, background checks, licensing.......et al. You should expect to see many new and exciting offerings in the way of products coming soon. As always, we look forward to your suggestions.

 

[Soofi]

There was quite a lot of due diligence required by our licensing agencies regarding Freelancer and they passed the test. This was all done to protect your interests. I'm not sure everyone realizes all the requirements of operating an online escrow company, i.e., insurance, government audits, bonding, background checks, licensing.......et al. You should expect to see many new and exciting offerings in the way of products coming soon. As always, we look forward to your suggestions.

Always looking forward to working with you and Escrow because of you Brandon