domains GoDaddy acquiring Uniregistry's registrar & marketplace, and Name Administration's domain portfolio

[equity78]

The first blockbuster deal of the decade. GoDaddy Inc. (NYSE: GDDY), the company that empowers everyday entrepreneurs, today announced it is acquiring Uniregistry's leading domain registrar and marketplace businesses. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed. The deal is expected to close sometime in Q2 2020. The Uniregistry domain registry is not part of the … [Read more...]

 

[oldtimer]

I think it's more the fact GoDaddy simply didn't want the registry part of the business. Very good decision on the part of GD to exclude them. I'm sure it's only a matter of time before he sells those as well.

I believe that Frank is going to invest more in being a registry, in 2014 a lot of the oldtimers who participated in the New gTLD program unfortunately acted like newbies when it came to picking the right extensions, but in the second round I believe that they are going to know what to do and what to go after, a successful New gTLD registry is like a gold mine and much better than trying to push four letter .coms for unrealistic prices. Also as you have witnessed here there is a lot of nastiness in the domain Industry, but Frank is a nice guy and I hope that he finds a way to fall on the Righteous side of the things.

IMO

 

[SuperBrander]

@Ategy You have to keep in mind that even the ones that seem average/worthless and not liquid, are a part of a portfolio that has consistently been performing especially well. There's strength in numbers and a lot of these seemingly not so great domains do sell. If you own enough of them and price them high, some people with fat wallets come along and overpay. As long as the portfolio owner knows how to pick them, and I think we can all agree that Frank is one of the more savvy domain investors out there (at least in regard to .com. His commitment to new extensions, until this point, hasn't proven as successful)- it can be a profitable, and in some cases a very profitable, model. So you have to factor that in when trying to guesstimate the price this portfolio is worth.

 

[Lox]

I suppose the ultimate question is what are the ratio of jewels to junk .. based on this thread it seems like a lot of longshot junk that Frank likely handregged eons ago. But really .. at this point unless anyone sees the entire portfolio .. any number is just a guess. But based on what I saw .. when I put $100/domain, I was actually being conservative and generous based on the limited information and domains listed here. Again though .. admittedly a guesstimate with rather limited information.

No one has more one-word dictionary domains (including straight-forward business, stars and constellation etc names) than F.S.
While you think that $35 million ($100/domain) is a fair valuation based on let-it-go liquidity, I can tell you that his *liquid portfolio alone is worth $600 million and for an end-user/s $2.3 billion -minimum.

Regards

 

[tonyk2000]

It was previously reported that, after purchasing Marchex portfolio, GD listed some domains too cheap. They did not valuate domains well, not did they acquire (or bothered to check) historical offers database. Endusers reported that they offered higher amounts to marchex (and their offers were rejected), but they were able to purchase the same cheaper after the Marchex portfolio was acquired by GD. So, GD should be careful this time. Even though Uni overpriced domains and frequently, underpricing them now would not be good for the market in general.

 

[Lox]

It was previously reported that, after purchasing Marchex portfolio, GD listed some domains too cheap. They did not valuate domains well, not did they acquire (or bothered to check) historical offers database. Endusers reported that they offered higher amounts to marchex (and their offers were rejected), but they were able to purchase the same cheaper after the Marchex portfolio was acquired by GD. So, GD should be careful this time. Even though Uni overpriced domains and frequently, underpricing them now would not be good for the market in general.

Importing 350k high quality dn's into AN FT opening up opportunities for high-end disruption by applying low-end disruption approach. In other words, it will shake the market price for - mid-low quality domains and end-user/s find that GD's pricing strategy work just fine and afterwards aren’t willing to leave GD services (domain, hosting, etc).

Regards

 

[Mister Funsky]

mporting 350k high quality dn's into AN FT opening up opportunities for high-end disruption by applying low-end disruption approach. In other words, it will shake the market price for - mid-low quality domains and end-users find that GD's pricing strategy work just fine and afterwards aren’t willing to leave GD services (domain, hosting, etc).

Unfortunately, I am afraid you are spot on. Domain retail sale prices will go down...how much will depend on how quickly they release the portfolio (I imagine they will roll them out, low and mid level, over 3-5 years).

 

[equity78]

Importing 350k high quality dn's into AN FT opening up opportunities for high-end disruption by applying low-end disruption approach. In other words, it will shake the market price for - mid-low quality domains and end-user/s find that GD's pricing strategy work just fine and afterwards aren’t willing to leave GD services (domain, hosting, etc).

Regards

But there are not anywhere close to 350,000 "high quality" names. I agree with your overall premise but high quality might be in the 10,000 range. Of course high quality is in the eye of the beholder. But there are typos, adult names, and some longer words that are not high quality names.

 

[equity78]

No one has more one-word dictionary domains (including straight-forward business, stars and constellation etc names) than F.S.
While you think that $35 million ($100/domain) is a fair valuation based on let-it-go liquidity, I can tell you that his *liquid portfolio alone is worth $600 million and for an end-user/s $2.3 billion -minimum.

Regards

Yes it's worth more than $35 million, as I said yesterday one prominent domainer asked me if some had valuations of $70 million? I said yes, He asked if they were under a psychiatrists care? Little over the top, but I think you see from Rick's tweet and poll, where people are speculating at.

 

[equity78]

@Ategy You have to keep in mind that even the ones that seem average/worthless and not liquid, are a part of a portfolio that has consistently been performing especially well. There's strength in numbers and a lot of these seemingly not so great domains do sell. If you own enough of them and price them high, some people with fat wallets come along and overpay. As long as the portfolio owner knows how to pick them, and I think we can all agree that Frank is one of the more savvy domain investors out there (at least in regard to .com. His commitment to new extensions, until this point, hasn't proven as successful)- it can be a profitable, and in some cases a very profitable, model. So you have to factor that in when trying to guesstimate the price this portfolio is worth.

Right and Frank sold them for bigger dollars than the average domainer, he, Mann, Berkens, Rick have gotten prices that most throughout the years said, "What???????"

 

[wwwweb]

So you are seeing Uniregistry brokers already starting to leave, Brooke was one of the more senior brokers at Uniregistry. Obviously they worked under Jeff Gabriel prior, now that he started Saw, I guess these brokers didn’t want to be part of Godaddy, Brooke probably would have done very well at Afternic given the portfolio they now control.


Saw.com hires veteran broker Brooke Hernandez and Robert Wilson as Sales Consultants.

 

[rh2000]

So you are seeing Uniregistry brokers already starting to leave, Brooke was one of the more senior brokers at Uniregistry. Obviously they worked under Jeff Gabriel prior, now that he started Saw, I guess these brokers didn’t want to be part of Godaddy, Brooke probably would have done very well at Afternic given the portfolio they now control.


Saw.com hires veteran broker Brooke Hernandez and Robert Wilson as Sales Consultants.

I should have known something was going on when I heard some of the brokers were leaving. There may be more brokers leaving later.

 

[Lox]

But there are not anywhere close to 350,000 "high quality" names. ...

Dictionary data mining / dn reg. is his discipline with a long history. (raw num. > 6-7k Top-level dn's, 15k premiums, 100k high quality dn's, 60k upper mid, 30k mid-low, the rest is used for strategy to drive the rest of the dn's. (*price) )

Regards

 

[equity78]

Dictionary data mining / dn reg. is his discipline with a long history. (raw num. > 6-7k Top-level dn's, 15k premiums, 100k high quality dn's, 60k upper mid, 30k mid-low, the rest is used for strategy to drive the rest of the dn's.)

Regards

Oh look I am not disparaging Frank, I just don't believe all 350,000 high quality and I don't see NameFind working how Frank worked, I think Frank had a smarter approach. Look I am nowhere in agreement with the $10m to $35m price opinions. There are some good brandables that some might not see as valuable but can fetch a decent price. A name like BlueQuartz.com has not liquid value but a name like that Frank sells for $10,000 to $20,000 where others auction off for $50 wholesale sell for $1,500 on a brandable boutique.

There is a good number of 3L.nets.

But there are a fair number of:

AssJockey.com
blossomy.com
blotterpaper.com
blowjobmoms.com
blowjobshots.com
blowjobss.com
bathroms.com

 

[wwwweb]

Oh look I am not disparaging Frank, I just don't believe all 350,000 high quality and I don't see NameFind working how Frank worked, I think Frank had a smarter approach. Look I am nowhere in agreement with the $10m to $35m price opinions. There are some good brandables that some might not see as valuable but can fetch a decent price. A name like BlueQuartz.com has not liquid value but a name like that Frank sells for $10,000 to $20,000 where others auction off for $50 wholesale sell for $1,500 on a brandable boutique.

There is a good number of 3L.nets.

But there are a fair number of:

AssJockey.com
blossomy.com
blotterpaper.com
blowjobmoms.com
blowjobshots.com
blowjobss.com
bathroms.com

Another thing is Name Media/Uni was known to get very high returns, and the best possible price out of their names. The name a typical domainer sells for $5K, oftentimes they could squeeze $10-$15K out of it. They did that with simply asking more, and saying NO, then pounding the person with automated emails until they responded with Goaway, or a close offer.

A friend of mine inquired about a recipe domain 4 years ago, that was quoted at like $30K, when they were at $4K, and to this day they still get emails about it asking if they are on vacation, or still ok, and stuff.

 

[Lox]

Oh look I am not disparaging Frank, I just don't believe all 350,000 high quality and I don't see NameFind working how Frank worked, ...

We'll have to wait (a year or less?) and see how the market is going to react to AN-GD's pricing strategy. My prediction is - it will hurt dreamers to the bone. btw. yesterday 150k .com's re/registered vs average/p/d 60-70k. Only 5.7% worth something ...

Regards

 

[equity78]

We'll have to wait (a year or less?) and see how the market is going to react to AN-GD's pricing strategy. My prediction is - it will hurt dreamers to the bone. btw. yesterday 150k .com's re/registered vs average/p/d 60-70k. Only 5.7% worth something ...

Regards

It will hurt at least in the short term I agree. Mike Berkens said to me yesterday, he thought auction prices would go down some. Because he is not in there and now Frank a guy there day in and day out.

Maybe someone picks up the slack.

 

[varyemez]

What do you think about Quad Premium LLLL .com domains futures after this sale?

 

[Lox]

Auctions ...that is about to change. The domain lease buyout model is the future and returning dn always comes with at least $$$+. The DN stakeholders (stock) model is likely a fair deal but it will depend on the end-user purchase power.

 

[Lox]

What do you think about Quad Premium LLLL .com domains futures after this sale?

There was patterns that are considered special and more valuable than others but China is going to buy a crazy amount of 1-word dictionary names (which is already rotting in Western portfolios).

Regards

 

[wwwweb]

It will hurt at least in the short term I agree. Mike Berkens said to me yesterday, he thought auction prices would go down some. Because he is not in there and now Frank a guy there day in and day out.

Maybe someone picks up the slack.

To be honest a lot of people had issues with supporting a company that was competing against them, and bidding them up, I don’t think anyone here will miss Taryn.

Active namejet users probably spent 5-6 figures bumping heads with Taryn, I’m not sure which figure is going to step in to pick up the slack, first, corplaw? Whoever that person is that comes in at the end, and bumps a few times before going cold.

 

[wwwweb]

What do you think about Quad Premium LLLL .com domains futures after this sale?

This sale changes nothing those $500-$2500 auction buys now instead of being marked at $20-$100k, maybe come down to $5-$25k, 99% of people still can’t afford them, nor are they at investor prices. So nothing changes, other than sell thru rates will spike up on an end user basis, but still at 4-5 figure pricing.

in regards to 3L, 4L outside of western, maybe look at China for weakness on pricing wholesale, as their food costs continue to rise, and economy slows, as so many factories are idling, and people live in fear.

 

[Quintin]

@Quintin
Can you inform us about the upcoming changes on UniMarket, if any?
For example, your payout processor remains OR it will be switched to GoDaddy's (bad news)?

It's business as usual for the time being. We'll continue to add features in the interest of domain investors.

 

[Spex]

But there are not anywhere close to 350,000 "high quality" names. I agree with your overall premise but high quality might be in the 10,000 range. Of course high quality is in the eye of the beholder. But there are typos, adult names, and some longer words that are not high quality names.

Maybe I missed it, but is Frank's portfolio publicly available somewhere?

 

[Business Brands]

Our guess on the price is $20M

 

[Samer]

Yeah. GD will definitely give this domain a price slice with a samurai sword. I just checked. It means "Number 1" in Japanese. No wonder it's so popular.

earth to Jap cars companies, deserved too!

personally i associate “made in Japan” quality

Samer