Here are some of the most notable sales at Sedo during the past week. These are sales that were published after the latest Sedo report was released last Tuesday. Please find below the list of domain names that were sold for $5,000 or more:
pcloud.com 12,000 EUR
ysw.com 15,000 USD
4wtc.com 10,000 USD
24video.com 7,500 USD
nanoprice.com 5,500 USD
The popular registrar Name.com was hacked last week and send an email to all customers so they could reset their passwords. Hackers aimed at one of name.com’s large commercial clients caused the registrar to send emails with a link to change the login password. I wrote about this in the post: the Name.com password reset email is REAL: time to change your name.com password.
What is rare about the incident is that that name.com gave full disclosure to all their customers and gave updates through their support, name.com blog and social media like twitter and facebook.
Name.com posted an article on their blog called “We got hacked“. Very few companies have the guts to admit something like that and that at least shows the integrity of Name.com. I am sure that most registrars (and I have a big one in mind) would have denied and hacking incidents. Here is how Name.com handled it:
Many of you received our email or saw online that name.com was hacked. The truth is that it’s one of the more painful admissions that can be made on the Internet. We want you to know that when we say that we “give a shit” we truly mean it. In an effort to maintain the open, honest, and transparent reputation we’ve built for ourselves, we’re going to give you the lowdown on what happened and what we did in response.
Our security team alerted us that unauthorized individuals had accessed our database. After doing some digging we found that the attack seemed to be geared toward a few specific accounts. The hackers had a target and name.com was a means to that end.
The information that was accessed includes usernames, passwords, physical addresses, email, hashed passwords and encrypted credit card data. EPP codes (required for domain name transfers) are not stored in the same place so those were not compromised. For the techies who are wondering, the encryption on the credit card information is 4096 bit RSA. Since the password hashes were compromised we took proactive steps and initiated a site-wide password reset (hence the email, apologies for the inconvenience).
We are genuinely sorry for the annoyance and the scare. We’re taking this incredibly seriously and are doing everything possible to continue to improve the security of our systems. We greatly appreciate the support across the web and over the phones.
Visit the blog post for the comments and the immediate response from Name.com. There is a person claiming that his account was hacked and his domain were stolen but we should wait and see how this turns out.
I have only used Name.com for drop catching and started using it in late 2012. I am now thinking that I should give Name.com a shot as one of my main registrars. I haven’t even checked their renewal prices but their support so far seems excellent. Only full disclosure will keep customers from leaving and maybe get a few new ones! Well done Name.com.
The next set of Initial Evaluation Results was released by ICANN. The total number of passing applications is now 300. ICANN released Initial Evaluation (IE) results for the next set of applications with priority numbers 300-350. There are 56 applications in this set that received a passing score (the number is larger than 50 because a few applications got a pass this week from previous sets). This takes the total number of IDN applications receiving a passing score to 300 out of 350. (there are a few withdrawn applications in these 350 applications) ICANN will continue to post IE results weekly, ramping up to 100 results per week by June.
For some applications Initial Evaluation results were not yet available for one or more possible reasons such as: pending change requests, clarifying questions, or follow-up with applicants regarding missing information. The results for these applications will be published as soon as the relevant processes are completed.
To view Initial Evaluation results for applications with priority numbers 1 through 350, go to the Current Application Status page of the new gTLD microsite. Then click on the Quick Search “IE Result – Pass”. Clicking on the result will take you to the Initial Evaluation report for that application.
There are three possible outcomes of Initial Evaluation: Pass, Eligible for Extended Evaluation, or Ineligible for Further Review.
As communicated previously, ICANN is releasing Initial Evaluation results in priority order, in increments of 30 per week, with plans to increase to 100 per week. ICANN anticipates having Initial Evaluation results for all applications published by the end of August 2013.
ICANN is actively seeking locations for its three public meetings to be held 8-12 February 2015 in Africa, 21-25 June 2015 in Latin America/Caribbean Islands, and 18-22 October 2015 in Europe. Those in the geographic regions are invited to submit recommendations for specific locations to hold the events. These recommended venues, along with others in the region that meet the selection criteria, will be considered. The final location for the ICANN Meetings will then be selected through the evaluation of both community-recommended and ICANN-identified locations.
Interested parties are encouraged to review the Meeting Selection Criteria, which will be used to guide the evaluation of both community-recommended and ICANN-identified meeting locations. Elements such as cost of the meeting for ICANN and the community, convenience to international airports, availability of sufficient hotel guest rooms in or near the venue, meeting facilities, network infrastructure, personal safety of meeting participants, and total level of financial support will be considered by ICANN in making its final selection of a meeting site.
Those interested in submitting a recommendation for a location to host the Meeting, or a proposal for host-level financial support in the region, are encouraged to submit the online Meeting Location Recommendation Form.
| Meeting No. | Official Dates | Geographic Region (?) | Submission Deadline |
| No. 52 | 8-12 February 2015 | AF | 5 July 2013 |
| No. 53 | 21-25 June 2015 | LAC | 5 July 2013 |
| No. 54 | 18-22 October 2015 | EUR |
Demand Media, Inc., a leading digital media and domain services company, reported financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2013.
“Strong growth from our owned & operated content and media properties drove our Q1 results, highlighting the unique capabilities of our content discovery, creation and distribution platform. Further, we accelerated our paid content strategy with the acquisition of Creativebug, a premier online destination for arts and crafts instruction, which will provide our large eHow crafts audience with an expanded learning experience. In addition, we signed up over 400 resellers to our new gTLD tools and received more than two million expressions of interest for domains to be registered with new gTLDs,” said Richard Rosenblatt, Chairman and CEO of Demand Media. “We are excited about the distinct long-term growth opportunities for both of our businesses.”
Q1 2013 Financial Summary:
“2013 is an investment year for Demand Media and we are pleased to deliver strong Q1 results while investing in both of our businesses,” said Demand Media’s CFO Mel Tang. “Our record Free Cash Flow in the first quarter grew 56% year-over-year and helped fund the acquisition of Creativebug and other new growth initiatives. We believe these investments will help position both of our businesses as leaders in their respective markets, as we continue to make steady progress towards separating our business into two publicly traded companies.”
Business Highlights:
Q1 2013 Operating Metrics:
Namejet partnered with Afilias to auction a list of 79 Premium .INFO domains for the first time. The list includes domains such as books.info, gold.info, casinos.info, shop.info, stocks.info and a lot more. Each name is listed with No Reserve and will sell to the highest bidder.
Here are the results of the 15 domains auctioned on the 5th day:
| wine.info | $13,600 |
| tickets.info | $9,100 |
| trip.info | $7,210 |
| work.info | $3,212 |
| vacation.info | $3,000 |
| stocks.info | $2,718 |
| soccer.info | $2,511 |
| trucks.info | $2,111 |
| storage.info | $2,050 |
| yachts.info | $1,601 |
| space.info | $1,530 |
| stemcells.info | $730 |
| springbreak.info | $383 |
| whitehouse.info | $170 |
| usopen.info | $110 |
Here are the results of the 16 domains auctioned on the 1st day, the 16 domains from the 2nd day, 16 domains auctioned on the 3rd day and the 16 domains auctioned on the 4th day.
See here the results of the 1st .info auction and the results of the 2nd .info auction.
The Moniker/Snapnames premium spring auction sells 31 domains worth a total of $30,877. There were 168 other domains that didn’t get the reserve such as kx.net $8,500, ylq.com $5,250, yogaclasses.com $10,250, 20.net $10,000, so.net $10,000, vivas.com $5,001 and capm.com $3,000.
Here are the 31 domains that were sold:
| Domain Name | Price in USD |
| stumpremoval.com | 11770 |
| temperature.co.uk | 2950 |
| cranerentals.com | 1850 |
| greatreviews.com | 1550 |
| bookingtickets.com | 1152 |
| bombay.co.uk | 1050 |
| autocarecenter.com | 675 |
| bookingvacations.com | 590 |
| sfey.com | 590 |
| jnu.net | 531 |
| arrd.com | 530 |
| gzw.net | 485 |
| tireandauto.com | 475 |
| bzo.net | 473 |
| xre.net | 460 |
| xgs.net | 444 |
| vyc.net | 429 |
| jxb.net | 410 |
| jzy.net | 410 |
| wxg.net | 410 |
| qrn.net | 398 |
| bqp.net | 385 |
| fqw.net | 385 |
| eromances.com | 375 |
| dcze.com | 300 |
| golfingschool.com | 300 |
| joggingshorts.com | 300 |
| seem.net | 300 |
| uheo.com | 300 |
| vuvu.net | 300 |
| xpix.org | 300 |
Namejet partnered with Afilias to auction a list of 79 Premium .INFO domains for the first time. The list includes domains such as books.info, gold.info, casinos.info, shop.info, stocks.info and a lot more. Each name is listed with No Reserve and will sell to the highest bidder.
Here are the results of the 16 domains auctioned on the 4th day:
| shop.info | $8,500 |
| schools.info | $3,300 |
| pain.info | $3,200 |
| new.info | $3,100 |
| pension.info | $3,000 |
| restaurant.info | $2,400 |
| shops.info | $1,588 |
| retirement.info | $1,500 |
| optician.info | $1,100 |
| rheumatism.info | $760 |
| prize.info | $460 |
| quote.info | $460 |
| relocation.info | $410 |
| only.info | $350 |
| resources.info | $308 |
| optometry.info | $210 |
Here are the results of the 16 domains auctioned on the 1st day, the 16 domains from the 2nd day and the 16 domains auctioned on the 3rd day.
See here the results of the 1st .info auction and the results of the 2nd .info auction.
GoDaddy formally announced its new Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer Scott Wagner, effective immediately. Wagner was a KKR Capstone Member and the leader of KKR’s portfolio operations team in North America, who stepped in as GoDaddy’s interim CEO last summer. Wagner began working with GoDaddy a short time after KKR, Silver Lake Partners and Technology Crossover Ventures made strategic investments in the company in 2011.
“It’s not often you see an operator of Scott’s caliber and experience elect to join the portfolio company he was ‘dropped in’ to assist,” said Blake Irving, who became GoDaddy’s CEO in January. “Scott really kick-started our transformation back in July. He’s helped to develop our strategy and mature our operations – and he shares our passion to change the world for small business. Scott’s decision to join us speaks to both the power of our opportunity at GoDaddy and our people. There’s no better sign of confidence than to join full-time. This absolutely accelerates the phenomenal momentum we’ve created together.”
“It’s pretty simple. I believe in this company and what it can be – this is truly a rare opportunity to build a top-tier Internet company. Blake is an A-plus technology executive, a focused leader and a great guy to boot,” said Scott Wagner. “The overall GoDaddy team is terrific, and we’re building momentum month-to-month. I’m in it for the long haul and energized to be a part of it!”
Since Irving took over as GoDaddy CEO, he has opened offices in Sunnyvale, California and near Seattle, Washington. Irving has also had enormous success with recruiting top-tier tech talent in what is a highly competitive hiring climate. Notable hires include CTO and EVP Platforms Elissa Murphy, who joined from Yahoo! and previously worked at Microsoft; Chief Architect Arnold Blinn, a 17-year Microsoft veteran; SVP International James Carroll, a former executive at Yahoo! and GM at Microsoft; EVP eCommerce Phil Bienert, a former AT&T executive; SVP and GM Hosting Jeff King, who is a 17-year veteran in online commerce, most recently with eBay; SVP Design and User Experience Rick Eames, who worked at both Apple and Microsoft; SVP Vertical Marketing Bob Lund, a former executive with Hewlett Packard; SVP Corporate Development David Popowitz, a former head of Credit Suisse Technology Banking; as well as, VP and GM Site Builder Products Raj Mukherjee, formerly of Google.
Wagner had served KKR for 13 years, working with its portfolio companies as both an advisor and stand-in executive with a particular focus on technology, media and payments. Under his watch as interim CEO from July 2012 to January 2013, GoDaddy launched new products for customers, such as mobile websites and Reseller Hosting and opened an office in Hyderabad, India to serve customers there.
GoDaddy sales hit nearly $1.3 billion last year. The company now serves more than 11 million paying customers worldwide and is the largest Web hosting and domain name registrar on the planet. GoDaddy leverages its award-winning talent and personalized service approach to help small businesses create their digital identity, build websites and harness the power of the Internet.
GoDaddy was honored in the 2012 Fortune magazine’s Best Companies to Work For list and has also been recognized for dozens of other national and local employment awards recently, including Alfred P. Sloan’s Flexible Workplace (6 years) and Valley’s Best Places to Work (9 consecutive years).
GoDaddy has offices throughout Arizona and in Sunnyvale, Calif.; Denver, Colo.; Kirkland/Bellevue, Wash.; Washington, D.C. and Hiawatha, Iowa; as well as The Netherlands, India and Singapore.
As of 7 and 8 May 2013, 3 more ICANN accredited registrars are in breach of their Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA) with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).
ICANN requests that these 3 registrars cure the breaches by 28 and 30 May 2013, 15 working days from the date of the letter ICANN send to the affected registrars.
These breaches result from:
DomainSnap, LLC must pay all past due accreditation fees in the amount of $7,499.38..
Dattatec.com SRL must pay all past due accreditation fees in the amount of $5,673.06, clearly display a link to ICANN’s Registrant Rights and Responsibilities webpage on Dattatec’s website; and provide records demonstrating that Dattatec investigated the Whois inaccuracy claims concerning the domain names <uskyokvagmo.com>, <wriemfojr.com>, <rogtocdoht.com>, and <rymloiwumm.com>. This includes copies of Dattatec’s correspondence with the registrants while investigating the Whois inaccuracy claims (including dates and times and means of inquiries, telephone numbers, e-mail addresses, and postal addresses used) in accordance with Section 3.4 of the RAA.
Internet Solutions (Pty) Ltd. must pay all past due accreditation fees in the amount of $7,863.67.
After failure to timely cure the breaches and provide the information requested, ICANN may
commence the registrar termination process.