GoDaddy Comments on Domain Portfolio Acquisition

GoDaddy LogoI noticed that quite a few domain names transferred to NameFind this morning from a company called Traffic Names, Ltd. The portfolio has many high value domain names, and my guess is that this  was an 8 figure acquisition. Jamie Zoch wrote about the acquisition earlier this morning.

After seeing the domain registrant changes and Jamie’s article, I sent an email to Paul Nicks, Vice President of the Aftermarket at GoDaddy. I asked him for an official comment about the acquisition, and I also asked him if the company acquired the entire portfolio or a portion of it. Here’s the official GoDaddy statement  about the acquisition:

“We can confirm that GoDaddy has acquired another great domain name portfolio. This is a high quality portfolio and will help deliver customers their ideal name. The seller asked we keep their identity private, so we will not be disclosing that information.”

In addition to this statement, Paul also confirmed that GoDaddy acquired the entire portfolio. DomainIQ indicates that this is somewhere in the ballpark of 31,000 domain names. That figure doesn’t include names that could have a different email address associated with them or privately registered domain names.

If you have a look at DotComAgency.com (or the Archive.org version if the website is taken down), you can see quite a few of the domain names that GoDaddy likely acquired in this deal. Using DomainIQ, I found some of the top names in the portfolio:

  • 14.com
  • 452.com
  • 492.com
  • 605.com
  • Ads.com
  • Bakeries.com
  • Camera.com
  • Offices.com
  • Pendants.com
  • Printers.com

This portfolio acquisition follows other portfolio acquisitions in the past couple of years including Mike Berkens’ Most Wanted Domains portfolio, the Marchex domain portfolio, and the Elite Domains portfolio. There may have been others that went under the radar or that I can’t think of off the top of my head. I think this shows that GoDaddy is always on the hunt for the right portfolio deal that it knows its sales team can manage and monetize.

As with the other portfolio acquisitions, if you had an interest in any of the domain names in this portfolio, you might want to reach out to NameFind’s Brian Kleiner to discuss a deal. I am sure they will be going through the historical inquiries and possibly begin to reach out to prospects who previously inquired.

Elliot Silver
Elliot Silver
About The Author: Elliot Silver is an Internet entrepreneur and publisher of DomainInvesting.com. Elliot is also the founder and President of Top Notch Domains, LLC, a company that has closed eight figures in deals. Please read the DomainInvesting.com Terms of Use page for additional information about the publisher, website comment policy, disclosures, and conflicts of interest. Reach out to Elliot: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn

14 COMMENTS

    • Seller likely reached out to GD about it, my guess price is 350$ – 420$ range per name on 30K names. This is a high end portfolio so a really good deal for GD and not so good for seller.

    • They probably walked away with 15-20 million dollars and that’s not good for the seller? Who cares how much each domain averages out to when it will take many many years to even come close to 15-20 million in sales if sold individually. I can guarantee you that are popping champagne bottles right now.

    • I think all would agree that selling one premium name for $500 would be a huge mistake. Selling a bunch at the same time just amplifies that huge mistake. To me, this seems like a very very bad deal for the seller.

      • Think of it his way. For every one premium name sold for $500, they are selling hundreds or thousands of very low value names for $500.

        Essentially someone with a portfolio of tens of thousands of names could spend many years working leads to make 8 figures. Instead, they can sell for a bit of a discount and still make 8 figures assuming an average price of $500/name. Doesn’t seem all that complicated to me.

  1. GoDaddy/Namefind keep buying domain name portfolios, but let some of the domains expire into GoDaddy auctions like they did with PayHere.com?
    There had to be someone that would of bought PayHere.com for more than $4,350, which sold for that price on GoDaddy expired auctions on November 17th!

  2. Pretty great master plan, imo. I’d do the same in their position.

    Not only to operate the biggest mine, but to sell the most picks and shovels, house the most miners, and over the last 20 months, accumulate the most valuable stash of gold in the industry.

    Companies like BuyDomains & HugeDomains have much larger portfolios but the number of potential blockbuster sales in the NameFind portfolio is just silly.

    Funny though, to put it into perspective, the combined purchase price of all of the portfolios they have acquired recently is less than 10% of their cost to acquire HEG (if approved).

  3. What I have learned is you have to pay up to acquire the best, and have to take the worst from it.

    Anyone who has been around for a while, and has had some ahh haaa idea moments only to do a Whois to see traffic names from the U.K.

    A good solid portfolio 14.com is a 7 figure domain.

    77 3L.coms that is another 7 figures.

    These are quick liquid domains, if seller needed a few million they had quick access, and I am sure they did well with the Chinese run up last year.

    Along with a great 2015 2016 based on their portfolio.

    My guess another early guy, who wants to do other things. Time to move on pretty much.

    I think Ian got a higher value than $500, they were tough on pricing.

    Godaddy grows even stronger by the day, clearly they believe in. .com

  4. I mentioned in this in the comments section on another article about GoDaddy but don’t see it now.
    I was the lone bidder on an Expired GoDaddy auction.
    Paid a mere 12 dollars.
    When GD sent me the email saying I won the domain, I paid instantly.
    I am well aware that its not a sure thing as the current registrant can still renew the domain with a few days left.
    After 2 days, I saw that the domain was moved to not won section.
    No email from Goaddy to that effect.
    A round of phone calls what made.
    GD claiming the registrant renewed.
    Delving deeper and with the help of the admissions by a GD employee, I see now that the registrant never renewed his domain, instead GD new domain partner, EIG’s Fast Domain transferred it directly to NameFind 2 days after I already paid for it.
    So a partner of GD gave the domain to GD’s sister company NF, 2 days after I won it and paid for it. So Godaddy sold me the rights to a domain and then bought the domain for themselves from the their new Domain Registrar partner.
    Charming company.

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