What Was Behind the Great 3-Letter Info/Biz Buyout?: New Cover Story at DNJournal.com

[Duke]

You all heard the news last week when Elequa bought ALL of the thousands of remaining .info and .biz three-letter domains. It was a landmark event for the new extensions, so we shelved the Cover Story we had planned and went to work on a special report documenting what just went down. We talked with Elequa to find out why he made the move, to pioneering .biz and .info developers to see what this might mean for the market and to registry officials from Afilias (.info) and Neulevel (.biz) to get their take on the current "state of their extensions".

Read all about it here:

The Great Three-Letter .Info/.Biz Buyout: Elequa Alters the New Extension Landscape

 

[bidawinner]

Elequa . ..when you just about finish your .Biz puzzle and see you are short about 50 Pieces ( 50 3 letter .Biz) .. give me a ring I think I can finish the puzzle for you :laugh:

Glad I held on to them..

Very nice move by you and chris these past couple weeks..

And thanks again to Duke for the great read !

 

[.biz]

he got a shot from this one http://www.dnforum.com/showthread.php?t=49794

 

[OnSpec]

Great work Duke. I applaud your insights to get this in the mainstream sooner rather than later. Cheers.

 

[izopod]

To succeed on the internet you must own "market share". His "surprise" purchase of the remaining (3) letter .info/.biz domains was a sound business decision in my opinion. He is preventing others from even trying to gain a foot hold in this arena of (3) letter "acronyms" in the new extensions.

Another way to gain "market share" on the internet is to become a "media" conglomerate. With more and more of us turning to the internet for news, Elequa's decision to turn FMA into an media empire is also a brilliant move. I have some plans of my own for something like this but am going after a "niche" market and a smaller scale. (btw... Duke, you appear to own the Domain News market---you deserve it!---Now send your spiders out, and multiply!)

Well done. The article had many insights, and is always interesting to hear what elequa has to say.

 

[Nexus]

Awesome reporting. Time will tell what dreams may come.

~ Nexus

 

[StockDoctor]

Great article again Duke of Earl! I hope you're syndicating this stuff thru the blog networks and Moreover etc.
Doc

 

[Duke]

I noticed Moreover picked it up and it leads their domain name news feed today. Nice position considering the ICANN meeting is going on in Rome!

 

[DaddyHalbucks]

Thanks for another interesting article.

The most interesting part to me is about "making markets." People often forget that strategic actions of investors can alter markets significantly.

As Elequa himself alluded, domains are not his main source of income, it's all just play money to him.

.INFO and certainly .BIZ is nothing in which I would invest. Sure, you can probably make some money, but I like the .COM/ .NET/ .ORG market.

Sure, there are lots of folks who will trade Kansas farm land. But I am like the Donald. I am only interested in Manhattan. That means: .COM

Ok, Boston is decent too, so I also buy .ORG

 

[izopod]

Ok, Boston is decent too, so I also buy .ORG

Boston is good, but L.A (short for Los Angeles) isn't that bad either so I buy strategic .biz (short for business) domains.

 

[StockDoctor]

.INFO and certainly .BIZ is nothing in which I would invest. Sure, you can probably make some money, but I like the .COM/ .NET/ .ORG market. Ok, Boston is decent too, so I also buy .ORG

I'd gladly trade almost any of my .org or .net names for the .info version.

 

[Ed30]

Boston is good, but L.A (short for Los Angeles) isn't that bad either so I buy strategic .biz (short for business) domains.

.biz is more Tombstone AZ than LA CA.

 

[izopod]

.biz is more Tombstone AZ than LA CA.

Shucks...and I had a grand vision of seeing a Anywhere.biz banner at LAX. Looks like now I will have to settle for 5th & Main St, Tombstone, AZ to launch my .biz. :cheeky:

 

[DaddyHalbucks]

Elequa is a nice guy by all accounts. And very successful.

However, this particular transaction looks like a risky gambit by a guy with too much money.

Heck, I hope he proves me wrong. I'd like to see Elequa do very well with this chunk of the net.

 

[StockDoctor]

Elequa is a nice guy by all accounts. And very successful. However, this particular transaction looks like a risky gambit by a guy with too much money.

Not at all. Very, very sharp transaction.

 

[mayor]

Excellent article, Duke! I think things are looking up for .info and .biz!

Mayor

 

[Duke]

Not at all. Very, very sharp transaction.

One thing I have heard repeatedly from people who have done deals with Elequa is that he does not spend his money unless he feels comfortable that he is getting a good buy. He has a keen sense of domain values and if you think you are going to get anything beyond fair market value from him just because he has the resources, you will almost certainly be disappointed.

It will be a long time before anyone knows for sure how this move pans out, but he didn't throw money at the 3-letter category just because he was sitting around bored one day with nothing better to do. It made sense to him on a number of levels (as we talked about in the article). He is, as Hal noted, one of the industry's true nice guys, so I wish him the best in realizing his vision.

 

[.biz]

anyway, it's a good news for domainers. Elaqua doesn't sell his domains, so the registrations makes 3-letter .info/.biz more valuable.

.biz

 

[GT Web]

how does one go about registering so many domains at once? btw - nice work as usual Duke

 

[TheDomainMan]

Cyba Squatting