The U. S. Bankruptcy Court has just issued a Court Ordered for the sale of two portfolios of domain names, one containing more than 150,000 domain names and separate portfolio of more than 3,000 domain names (the “Portfolios”), plus related monetization and registrar contracts.
The minimum bid is $4.3 million dollars and you will have to put up $500,000 into escrow to bid on the auction.
The domain names are owned by Ondova a company that Jeff Baron was involved in and which we wrote about in March of last year.
“The auction of these two portfolios, one containing 3,000 premium domain names, and another large portfolio containing more than 150,000 domain names, will take place on November 9, 2012, in Dallas, Texas.”
“The ruling allows liquidation of receivership and bankruptcy assets to resolve all claims, terminate the receivership currently administering the portfolios, and to pay fees owed to 22 different law firms and solo attorneys.”
“Interested bidders are invited to visit the website http://CourtOrderedDomainSale.com/ to request bid information. November 6, 2012, is the deadline to qualify as a bidder.”
To be considered a qualified bidder, a $500,000 earnest money deposit must be made, the standard Asset Purchase Agreement (APA) form must be signed with a qualifying overbid of at least $4.3 million, and a Non-Disclosure Agreement must be signed no later than November 6, 2012. ”
“Validation of ability to close is required; only serious bidders should apply.”
The Receiver retains the right to sell the portfolios in whole, or in part. Due Diligence materials will be made available on a confidential basis and at the sole discretion of the Receiver.
The auction will take place November 9, 2012 at 1717 Main Street, Suite 4000, Dallas, Texas, 75201, at 10:00 a.m. CDT.
Only Qualified Bidders will be permitted to attend the auction.
Intestingly, Sedo is going to hold 2 bankruptcy auctions (DSB Bank Bankruptcy Auction #1 and #2) in the period Nov 22-Dec 06.
servers .com ?
Domo
Well I downloaded all the info they made available & I got everything I could ever want but the domain names.
Lets remember in addition to the $4.3 million big your talking Over $1M a year in renewal fees if you keep all the domains which is going to go up 7% a year in 4 of every 6 years for the end of time
Servers.com appears to be one of the domains
Thanks,
FYI
The glitch still on, it’s preventing posts on the “sedo sales report”
worked for me
close your browser and try again
Any company that owns 150,000 separate domain names has gone COMPLETELY overboard. If they could sell some of them,they wouldn’t be going bankrupt, would they?
They would surely sell 3000 to 5000 [say] at a goodish[ even modest] profit to keep the money coming in……….IF THEY COULD !!
I’ve said all along, that MANY domain names are not
worth much at all. Most web-site creators will somehow manage to use some other cheap domain, rather than pay over the odds.
Most people are TIGHT-FISTED !!
If a company is holding 150,000 at once, they have put far too much faith in the importance of domains.
The very best ones are one or two word generic or geo , that can really sell a commodity , or promote a tourism or businesss location. You would be VERY hard pushed to even list 15000 such domains…..let alone 150,000 !!
This company must be really STUCK with all these domains…….otherwise they would have already dribbled out a few thousand to keep the wheels turning.
This should be a WARNING to everyone who thinks that this many domains COULD be fantastic for businesses.
I understand owning 3000 domains, maybe, but 150,000 is crazy lack of judgment.
I have always thought it is pretty difficult to sell domains at the best of times.
It seems that you have to deposit $500,000 and sign the NDA, just to get access to the domain name list. No thanks! There’s a “stalking horse” bid already of $4.1 million, as apparently the porfolio was shopped around (“marketed”) already.
They’re doing it all wrong if they want to maximize the proceeds. They should be auctioning off the domains individually. One reason they might be hiding the domain name list is that there could be potential TM typo names on the list (especially given all the prior lawsuits), and a buyer could buy those names without attracting yet another lawsuit (from the TM holders, etc.).
I’m going to assume that the lawyers are the stalking horse bid. Or somebody else who is on the inside of this mess.
I totally agree. How are you going to drum up demand when you are not publishing the domain list? I went through all of the documents as well – and did not see a mention of what domains. The most important part!
on re: to Servers.com
I am wondering what effect if any… the Cloud has on its valuation?
one of the hottest phrases at the moment in the Tech sector is : the “Post-PC’ era
. This is to intise domain name owners to falsely believe they can buy these domain names for pennies on the dollar. There is a good chance that the sale will be overturned by the appeals court. If you have been following this case on lawinjustice.com, you will know that this sale will probably be overturned by appeal. No one will benefit from this sale except the lawyers who have colluded to rob domain name owners of their property’s. , domain holding Grp appears to have been suponed in this case. Mr Berkens, do oyou any have any personal involvement in this?
Anyone that finds it curious why the list is not being made available without an NDA need only consider this small sample…
aaplestore.com
spamhaus.com
aplle.com
rosaparks.com
greenmountaincoffe.com
BarclayCardsUs.com
ChaseCardMemberServices.com
WuTangClanMusic.com
TyBeanieBabys.com
WestchesterCountyClerk.com
Cittcards.com
UssRonaldRegan.com
McnallyRoadAtlas.com
BacaraResorts.com
ChaseOneLine.com
MutuAofOmaha.com
LibertyMutualins.com
Linkedlin.com
DoraExploradora.com
etc….
There are thousands and thousands of names like these, all registered to capitalize on typo traffic of the respective TM holders. This is what got him into this mess in the first place. Obviously, anyone who does buy this portfolio is also going to have to assume one Hell of a lot of liability from this segment as well.
Sure, there is also a truckload of killer generic names included as well, like these:
servers.com
Procedures.com
PenileImplant.com (personal page?)
etc…
There’s also quite a few that probably “should” be on the list but seem to have shifted registrars/registrants in the last few months… so unclear on those.
Bottom line, my opinion is that this is a risky proposition from a number of angles. You’ve got the obvious TM/typo exposure but, more importantly, you’re also probably not going to get the portfolio anyway as the lawyers already have a bid over $4M from when they shopped it around to a few key brokers. So, best case scenario, you’ll end up in a bidding war with whomever has that bid (at least) – making this whole exercise a bit of a stroke job. But that’s just my opinion 😉
@Angelica Jones
When you strip this whole debacle down to the real issue, devoid of all the wishful thinking and spin, all that’s left is that your guy is a victim of his own greed and arrogance.
I share Kirikos comment, so I asked them and got this response:
“There are circumstances in the courts that have dictated this sales method.”
These seem to be generic, but the rest that were posted not so much…
spamhaus.com haus = house in German
rosaparks.com (this one says “this website has been deactivated”, so it must have been a site at one time, and I really like that one)
UssRonaldRegan.com this one is parked, and seems legit, it is the name of a boat, right?
“Pay fees to 22 separate law firms and individual attorneys” !!!!!????
God help him !! One of those leeches is enough of a head-ache.
Anyone who buys this lot needs their heads tested.
I wonder how much money he was making from spelling errors or typographical errors leading to his web-sites?
Not enough,obviously, if he has to contend with all those lawyers.
If he was so clever…….he wouldn’t be bankrupt !!
I’m from the UK and I think that lawyers are very often krooks……oops a typo !!
Seen this from the “Dallas News “link written below.I think the reporter is Robert Wilonsky.
“But according to court docs filed yesterday, Baron and his attorney, Houston-based Stephen Cochell, are insisting that’s ridiculously low-ball and are asking the court to intervene. Far as they’re concerned, “It appears that the value of the domain name portfolio is a minimum ‘floor’ value of $40,000,000 to $120,000,000,” according to Baron’s emergency motion, in which he’s asking for two more months. “Baron has a beneficial interest in the domain names, and deserves a fair opportunity for him, his lawyer and expert to value the property,” says yesterday’s filing.”
40 to 120 MILLION DOLLARS ?? …They say the portfolio is worth.
If the domains were worth that much , why did Baron not sell 3000 or 5000 of them over recent years to pay off debts ?
A valuation of 40 million to 120 million puts EVERY SINGLE DOMAIN at an average of $266 to $800 each !!……BIG bucks !!
Imagine being able to sell 150,000 separate domains for $500 each say !
Cloud-cuckoo land !!!!
It’s difficult enough selling individual domains ..
Imagine having to sell 150,000 of them for an average of $500 each.
F the krooks