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news Escrow.com Sold For $7.5 Million

silentg

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Freelancer.com announces the acquisition of

Escrow.com and completion of capital raising

SYDNEY, April 27, 2015: Freelancer.com, the world’s largest freelancing and crowdsourcing marketplace1, today announced that it had entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Escrow.com from a private investor for US$7.5 million in cash, and completed a AUD$10 million placement of ordinary shares to institutional investors.

Headquartered in California, Escrow.com provides online escrow services that facilitate and accelerate e-commerce by assuring secure settlement. It was founded in 1999 by Fidelity National Financial, a Fortune 500 company and the US’s largest provider of commercial and residential mortgage and diversified services.

Escrow.com is the leading provider of secure online payments and online transaction management for consumers and businesses on the Internet, with FY14 gross payment volume of US$265 million, net revenue of US$5 million, US$1.2 million in EBITDA and over US$2.2 billion in transactions to date.

Escrow.com reduces the risk of fraud by acting as a trusted third party that collects, holds and disburses funds according to buyer and seller instructions. Escrow services provided by the company are licensed and regulated.

Escrow.com partners include eBay, GoDaddy, AutoTrader.com, Flippa.com and it is also a strategic partner of the U.S. Commercial Service (USCS) in support of President Obama’s National Export Initiative designed to significantly grow US export volume.

Freelancer.com Chief Executive Matt Barrie said, “We are pleased to acquire Escrow.com, the world’s largest online escrow company. This highly complementary acquisition will enhance the ability of our 15 million users to transact securely, and there are large opportunities for growth and synergies with core offerings. Finally, it is a strong cornerstone for entering the payments space”.
 
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DomainScoop.Com

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I thought it would go for alot more. Escrow.com domain name alone is worth million. Someone got a great deal.
 

Vinexa

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Wow. I'm in shock hearing this news. I wonder what's in store for the company now?
 

DomainScoop.Com

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Profits at Escrow.com must have been much lower than I would have estimated... Still, Freelancer.com+Escrow.com seems like a good fit.

Frank schilling should have acquired it. It would have made perfect sense, and most of the revenue comes from domain names.
 

dictionaryof

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I was shocked to see the sale, just in general... but I never thought it was a very hight profit kind of business. They make $9k on a million dollar sale. On their own sale, they would have made a mere $66k if the buyer used them for the escrow. ;-)
 

Scott

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I also could not believe the selling price, I hope going forward the new owners continue or make better the escrow services we all know and use.
 

domainoid

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very surprised it did not sell for a lot more. hope freelancer does not raise prices on services.
 

Dushan Savich

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the market became smaller for escrow.com...sedo/moniker/afternic just from the top of my head are services I have used aside from escrow.com ...it makes perfect sense for them to go to freelancer
 

angel69

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I agree, I'm surprised the selling price was so low, I would've expected the buyer to pay so much more. I also agree the domain alone is worth so much money regardless of the company behind it. And I'm even more surprised at who the buyer was, Freelancer. That's not mainstream to say the least. Weird. GoDaddy is a good example of who should've acquired them, GD does not have an escrow unit and sends customers to Escrow.com when the sale is $1K or more

I don't think Escrow.com has that many competitors (dushan's comment), they were able to corner the domain market like no other escrow co. eCop is no real competitor, not even close. That service has a few problems with it and doesn't have the stature Escrow.com enjoys. As for Sedo, Moniker, etc their escrow service is usually there to complement a sale. And while you can use Sedo n Moniker for escrow even when the domain sale did not take place there, it's not common to do that. You'd typically end up on Escrow.com or take your chances with a straight Paypal sale

And right on, dictionaryof .....LMFAO, I wonder if they used themselves for their own transaction of Freelancer acquiring them. $66K or so would've been their own fee, good money was to be on that one
 

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