dotStrategy Co., the company that owns and operates the .buzz Top Level Domain (TLD) registry announced today the upcoming sale of 100% of the company’s shares in a closed-‐sealed auction.
The closed, sealed auction is scheduled for December 8, 2016.
The auction carries a minimum reserve bid price of $3,500,000.
“The winning bid received in auction will acquire the following .buzz highlights:
- .buzz registry and all associated rights to operate the Top Level Domain
- Reserved domain name portfolio of premium .buzz domains, including all 1 and 2 character .buzz domains and a plethora of other premium keywords
- 60+ contracted registrar partners including GoDaddy and the largest registrar partners worldwide, selling .buzz domains to registrants in over 100 countries.
- Instant revenue generating income from existing .buzz domain name registrations.
- dotbuzz trademark registered with the Office for Harmonization In The Internal Market (OHIM)
- Immediate active user base of well-‐defined and growing communities displaying a genuine affinity for the word “buzz”.
Interested buyers or investors who want to move forward are encouraged to request and return a signed copy of the .buzz Non-‐Disclosure Agreement.
Upon receipt of the NDA by dotStrategy, Co., information related to due diligence will be provided including: corporate documents, financial documents, legal agreements, registration reports, etc.
To ensure all potential investors have the equal information, an online questions and answer section will be setup for all interested parties.
According to the press release there are approximately 9,000 .buzz domain names currently under management.”
So here are some thoughts;
According to ntldstats.com there are 9,183 .buzz domains in the zone file and a total of 9,513 domains. There are only 244 domain in upcoming deletes.
Using 9,000 domain names as the measure, someone paying the minimum price of $3.5 Million would be spending $388 per domain.
At the moment Godaddy is charging $19.95 retail for a .buzz domain.
It is unknown how much of that the registry is receiving or how much it has to pay its back end provider Neustar (NSR) per domain.
Of course .buzz says they have reserved domain portfolio including all 1 and 2 character .buzz domains. However we just saw i.club sell for just $10K at a Sedo auction a couple of weeks ago.
By comparison, Back in March of this year Daniel Negari of the .XYZ registry offered to buy four domain extensions owned by Rightside for $5 million dollars which had a total of just over 15,000 domain registrations which works out to $338 per domain registration.
Rightside rejected the offer.
The press release concludes as follows:
“For auction advising and consulting services dotStrategy, Co., has secured the services of Christa Taylor, CPA, dotTBA, Mike Rodenbaugh, Principal, Rodenbaugh Law and Ty Jordan, Attorney, Jordan Law Firm.
For additional information and details related to the dotStrategy auction please contact:
dotTBA Inc.
Christa Taylor
+1.604.961.9460
the greater fool theory in all its splendor.
$3.5M
Only one thing comes to mind : LOL
They talk about instant income from existing domains but the number of registered domains will be divided by 2 when the renewal cycle comes.
There’s a $0.25 per year ICANN fee for each domain name + a back end provider fee + a large cut taken by registrars + legal fees + costs associated with running a business.
No mention about the ICANN maintenance fee of $24,000 to pay each year in their sales’ pitch.
That’s a huge money losing business from day one.
A large cut taken by Registrars? I disagree.
A large cut taken by the Backends? I agree.
Mike, you’re the attorney, I’m not! How would a corporation guarantee this [60+ contracted registrar partners] Would all partners stay? I’m a dot com man myself, but someone with deep pockets could use this 100% stock purchase, plus valid contracts, assets, etc, to remake the company, buy more interesting assets, then go public! They’ll be a number of similar opportunities coming available that could beef-up the purchase? It would probably take $10 million or more, but it could work! IMHO
The issue here they hoarded the good domains, and with everything that was coming out, fast, and frantic at that time, that much needed immediate capital, and domainer middlemen moved on as well.
Domainers are an eco system in themselves, they help sustain things, until these extensions get developed, they help keep the lights on, and the salary on staff.
If these guys think the end user community is going to come buy them out, they have it all wrong, and that is why this FAILURE is going on the auction block, as they have thrown in the towel.
BUZZ was a hotter keyword in 2014 for sure, it peaked in, and around there, I know from my .com sales for that keyword.
They missed the boat, take the $3.5M, I don’t think anyone else is going to bid, if they do I can’t see it being legit.
Take what $3.5M? That is just their minimum bid, but no one is dumb enough to bid that, at least so far….
The 1 cent ceo of .xyz negari, was offering $5M for some subpar extensions, then again he also owned shares in the same company, and sold them shortly therafter, I guess $3.5M would be a steal for .buzz given his metrics on the other domains.
. . . and yet another nail in the coffin of the new tlds.
The buzzards are circling . . .