Why didn't he auction it at Namescon, most domainers are paying more than end users these days, plus perfect platform for his auction company.
He had around 100 3L.com, and the way he used to talk about the endless offers, they are very liquid in sales. I would assume he owns many 4L.com, with Chips averaging around $2K each.
So I wonder why he didn't sell the most liquid names, which have so much value right now, and then offload the rest. 70,000 bulk sales let you get rid of a lot of garbage, but also cream of the crop gets watered down in there.
The buyer most likely got a free education with the Marchex portfolio, seeing it had Beijing in it, and was around 200K names for the reported $28M, let alone the 200 numerics they sold for $1M recently also.
The GTLD's he has been buying very early in EAP, Day 1-5, sometimes paying thousands, and owing premium renewals into the hundreds annually, since it is so early on, do not think his buyer wanted that headache, nor the EAP costs added in, sometimes you are underwater for a few years.
The buyer is a value added service provider, so they look to sell hosting, privacy, bookeeping, ssl certificates etc... so every buyer is a potential customer, and another lead.
It was just timing, I think MB got tired of losing in the drops, as the Chinese buyers just about outbid anyone, even on english terms, I saw to Chinese buyers fight it out recently on dnfinance.com taking it from $400, all the way up to $2800 in a 2 way bidding war.
I think there is something more urgent to the sale, for someone who fought so hard to close every deal at a new high, I can't see them just giving it away, but to each their own.
The financial of the buyer should give some indication on what the number was, would have been easier for them to be more generous with shares, and a X lockout period, than outlay cash.
