GoDaddy Insider Bidding makes non-domain Blog Headlines
Slashdot.org, a non-domain blog has picked up the story about Adam Dicker the VP of Godaddy in charge of their aftermarket auctions bidding on such auctions.
Good to see.
We need to get the word out about this story and Tucows who has taken domains, right from registrants and kept them for themselves.
Image if Network Solutions did that, pick the best of the expiring domains off the top for themselves, the outcry would be huge.
Same principle here.
A registrar should not be able to retain all the expired domains it wants, from own its customer without letting them drop or be made available to the public first.
And once a registrar places a domain into an auction and there is a winning bidder the domain must go to the winner of the auction, unless redeemed by the a non related third party registrant.
http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/06/29/0625249
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Surely, this is an unethical business practice which Bob Parsons should condemn. People at disadvantage are not only the customers, but also Godaddy employees who will be afraid to bid or compete with Adam Dicker. As a VP this guy should be making enough that he shouldn’t have descended so low in such practice
Glad to see this!
Hopefully it will gain traction and get picked up by other mainstream media outlets.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. These guys that are in positions of power are the problem with their unethical views and business practices.
They either change their ethical views or become ostracized by the community. I’m sure Adam is a nice guy. Even nice, decent human beings go astray.
You guys who know him personally need to try and make him see this. If not it will only get worse with time and hurt his reputation more.
Mike, your position is more than sound. Its simply shocking that basic business ethics have to be explained and justified, let alone defended.
Mak
This story has been around for a while although it is just getting picked up by non-domainer sources.
To date we have heard nothing from Mr. Parson’s or Gadaddy about this practice.
Additional, we along with our readers, have been calling out Godaddy for a while over the auction of domains that clearly infringe on well know trademarks.
To date this policy has not seemed to change and we never got or saw any comment from Mr. Parson’s or Godaddy on the trademark issue
Mr. Black
I agree, however I’ve had contact with 3 upper level people at Tucows and they all have all rejected all business ethics arguments raised.
They have made clear through the e-mails, blog posts and responses the only thing they say they care about is their shareholders, however their stock is less than 1/2 of what is was last year and if they are going to toss excellent customers to the wind, well that might explain why its less than 1/2.
Mister.us has now reported that the domain spyware.us was auctioned off at TDNAM and Mr. Dicker was the winning bidder
http://www.mister.us/2008/06/spywareus-drops-and-goes-to-adam-dicker.html
Scott
I don’t know Mr. Dicker
MHB: In that case, I believe this is not going away anytime soon. Godaddy can’t sweep this under carpet; it is like opening a can of worms which would eventually lead to bigger bad publicity and outrage. Are Godaddy’ honchos stupid ? C’mon you can’t risk your company’s stellar repu over a misdeed of one guy.
Ah! Is this the unscrupulous practices that made Godaddy cancelled its IPO the other time? I bet this company would need to go public one day. This kind of thing would then have an impact their stock.
Sorry to hear that Mike. That is very bad corporate leadership which will doom the company and its shareholders. If the “shareholders” are being leveraged as an excuse for poor ethics, how about appealing to one of the largest and visible Tucows shareholders, Mr. Mark Cuban? He may not be even be aware of the disastrous course his company is on.
Mark
Mr. Dicker is not the only employee at GoDaddy who participates in the TDNAM auction, he is just the most visible guy since he is in charge of the auction.
As far as I know all employee’s of Godaddy are allowed to buy domains at their own auction and at least one ex-employee stated in a response to a previous post here, that he has purchased domains on TDNAM auction platform
Mr black
Where do you get the info that Mr. Cuban is one of their largest shareholders??
According to Yahoo
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/mh?s=TCX
% of Shares Held by All Insider and 5% Owners: 11%
% of Shares Held by Institutional & Mutual Fund Owners: 17%
% of Float Held by Institutional & Mutual Fund Owners: 19%
Number of Institutions Holding Shares: 13
MAJOR DIRECT HOLDERS
Holder Shares Reported
NOSS ELLIOT 334,328 12-Sep-07
STERN STANLEY 203,850 2-Jun-08
MORRISETT LLOYD N 105,000 2-Jun-08
GISSIN FREZ 10,000 2-Jun-08
TOP INSTITUTIONAL HOLDERS
Holder Shares % Out
Platinum Management 2,831,009 3.83
Value $1,698,605 31-Mar-08
PAR CAPITAL MANAGEMENT 1,755,480 2.38
Value $1,053,288 31-Mar-08
DIKER MANAGEMENT, LLC 9,407,035 12.73
Value $5,644,221 31-Mar-08
RENAISSANCE TECHNOLOGIES 687,000 .93
Value $412,200 31-Mar-08
SPARK LP/DE 327,500 .44
Value $196,500 31-Mar-08
Credit Suisse 94,000 .13
Value $56,400 31-Mar-08
GOLDMAN SACHS GROUP 58,224 . 08
Value $34,934 31-Mar-08
NORTHERN TRUST CORPORATION 23,344 .03
Value $14,006 31-Mar-08
BEAR STEARNS & COMPANY 11,900 .02
Value $7,140 31-Mar-08
SENA WELLER ROHS WILLIAMS INC. 10,000 .01
Value $6,000 31-Mar-08
Thanks for pointing things out.
Great response by jblack and MHB
From Edgar Online (Tucows 10k)
http://sec.edgar-online.com/2008/03/28/0001047469-08-003631/Section21.asp
Beneficial Ownership of
Common Stock
————————-
Number of
Shares Percent
Beneficially of
Name and Address of Beneficial Owner Owned Class(1)
——————————————————– ———— ——–
Diker GP, LLC 9,407,035 (2) 12.7 %
745 Fifth Avenue, Suite 1409
New York, New York 10151
Mark Cuban 6,932,784 (3) 9.4 %
5424 Deloache Avenue
Dallas, TX 75220
Unfortunately Tucows is not alone but they are a public company and therefore public about how they earn their profits. . .
Elliot
Very good work.
Adam
Agreed
I have said this many times, a public company has a higher duty of ethically behavior.
Quote: “Image if Network Solutions did that, pick the best of the expiring domains off the top for themselves, the outcry would be huge.”
Why do you not think that Net sol does not hold back some of its domains (ie “cherry pick?”) They all cherry pick which is different of course than bidding on a domain that is in the auction.
Dn
Well I have never heard of it and they have been doing drop auctions a very long time.
I see domains dropping all the time that would be picked off if in fact you were going to pick off domains.
Three letter .com drop almost every week.
I see 4 on my report for this week alone.
I also see 11 names that sold for over $5k in the past 2 weeks.
Too many good names getting released there.
In absence of any proof, like actual domains that were in pending delete and wound up being in Net Sol’s name, I would say they do not cherry pick and to my knowledge the only one who does it Tucows.
Mike,
Didn’t mean to imply that you know Adam Dicker.
I meant that in general to any of the guys (gals)
that read your blog that might know him personally.
Scott
I didn’t take it any other way, just making clear that I don’t know him
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