On Friday the daily newsletter of Domaining carried this simple message:
“”Game is over. Next week I will announce the new owner of Domaining.com”
That one sentence that appeared on the top of the Domaining.com newsletter caused the domain blogosphere to blow up all weekend with posts about the “sale” of Domaining.com even leading to many bloggers and commentator guessing as to whom the buyer was.
I reached out on to Saturday to Francois Carrillo who owns and operates Domaining.com to find out what was going on.
Yesterday, he asked me to publish this statement Monday morning which appears unedited:
“On Friday I wrote in my newsletter:
“Game is over. Next week I will announce the new owner of domaining.com”
A Few bloggers started to announce domaining.com was sold.
It’s still not the case otherwise I would have previously sent a private note to the bloggers.
In fact the past weeks I have been “privately” spreading the voice that domaining.com was for sale.
After many offers received finally one came from an investor willing to pay the reserve I had set.
So I checked if the other prospects may counter this offer.
A pair clearly let me think they should do it this past week, but this past week was NamesCon time and they were busy in the conference.
Friday morning something personal happened that lead to the decision to close a sale as soon as possible.
It’s when I abruptly decided to announce in my newsletter (potentially read by the prospects) that next week I will announce a new buyer.
This little sentence was targeted to the potential buyers:
With the hope that seeing they were losing the buying opportunity they will counter offer and I will maximize the sale.
But things never happen as one would like otherwise the life will be too easy:
The bad news is this investor vanished, the sale fell through, ouch!
The other bad news is I did not realize some newsletter readers would understand the sale was already effective and lead to few sale blog posts and some anticipated congrats.
The good news is some potential buyers (all well known in the domain industry) started to contact me again.
What I can say today is I hope all the negotiations I am having right now will lead to a sale and that I could announce it at the end of the week.
If you are part of the domain industry (very motivated and with +7 figures to invest) it’s probably your last chance to acquire domaining.com – Just contact me at info(at)cybertonic(dot)com
Thank you so much Michael for allowing me to clarify, as always your advice is invaluable.””
Funny, 7 figures for something that can be easily replicated.
Replicating something doesn’t give it reach, a following and a brand.
Don’t get wrapped up in this guy’s game. If someone ever paid 7 figures, hell would freeze over before they would make their money back.
To sum it up, it was a negotiation ploy that backfired.
So if someone has a $900K amount to “invest” is he eliminated right away?
Somebody, please tell me that this is a Domaining prank…
I think the sale includes all the services tied to Domaining.com and not just the aggregator. Is that correct?
Now I know why there are so many great domains that go unsold. Horrible negotiation tactics. This has got to be one of the worst I have ever seen.
I share many of the above sentiments above this tactic, and pawning off of pieces information reeks of bad tactics. Who announces an almost sale of a 7 figure deal?
Anyone in the industry most likely can acquire a strong domain asset for $100K, add another $100K into development, another $100K into marketing, and guess what you have yourself a self subscribed news feed of domain bloggers for $300K, not 7 figures.
Shame on you
First of all Mr. Carrillo is playing around with the potential buyers, trying to rise up the price for Domaing.com . This is nothing professional.
Second: announcing the sale before closing it in attempt to reach higher offers is NOT serious at all.
I agree, Domaining.com is a nice domain name, maybe worth $50K – $100K but this is the only value the buyer will get.
The website is so poor and so easy to replicate that I don´t see anybody spending (+7 figures) to adquire it.
So my personal advice to Mr. Carrillo:
Domaing, our small industry needs news and facts that can grow the trust of buyers and investors on it, and with news and facts like you provide they are all runing away.
If you want to sell your online business, do it; but talk about just after you close the deal.
Some members who speculated A to Uniregistry will be quite disappointed as many exchanged theories on who the buyer could have been over the weekend.
I wrote Francois about the income streams and such when contemplating a bid and received an email that said “Best offer is $1.2m, we are waitting $2m”
Honestly, dont understand anything now…as seems $1M wasnt even on the table?
Was I being goosed with fake bids in order to induce me to participate?
VERY SHADY
YES !!!
It’s not a secret that Sergei Putanov might have put in a bid for several million rubles.
Theo, if you say “several million rubles”, then it’s just a 5 figure offer, since as of today RUB/USD is approx 65 … 😉
But I’m sure Sergei would have offered much more 😀
I’m glad that the peanut gallery consists of the moral, ethical, and upstanding members of the domaining community.
Sometimes it’s such a pity that the industry of so many has its name and dragged through the mud by just one or two unscrupulous people who are on the extreme fringes of the community using tactics that are border on the not illegal.It’s abhorrent to think someone might announce a sale before being final. To quote non-fixed prices in an attempt to receive more.
Death to this domaining infidel ! (this is not a real threat)
😀
Surprising hostility on a domain blog for gosh sakes. But suffice to say its not getting 7 figures and he is a bad negotiator.
🙂
Probably only Sergei, Acro’s friend 😉 , could have offered 7 figures for a website for which revenue streams are not known or unclear (and, even worse, not provided to potential buyers, as it seems from some comments here …) …
Announcing a sale when not completed yet is absolutely unprofessional and ridiculous, as pathetic is the attempt to pump up offers in a shady way …
Unfortunately lack of professionalism, morality and ethics, intolerance to regulations, to customers rights, and other commercial malpractices seem pretty widespread in the domain industry …
I’m not surprised though, since my background is in the financial industry, where I’ve seen and worked with “sharks” of all kind …
And frankly I don’t see so many barriers to entry in the type of business Domaining.com is engaged in … so 7 figures is just a wishful thinking …
Jokes aside, I believe Francois deserves a break. If he announced the sale before it completed, that’s a negotiation issue that hopefully won’t prove to be fatal. Let’s wait until the end of the week, best of luck to Francois.
Sorry Theo, but announcing the sale before its completion, the way it happened in this case, is not “a negotiation issue” or a technicality, it’s a shady modus operandi to try to raise the price further … greed can be your best enemy … 😉
‘Sold’ means sold, not pending sale. So I will assume something went wrong after an agreement was reached. I would not be surprised if buyer’s remorse is involved. In that case, we’d like to hear who was the person that renegged.
Theo, if you read again the above-mentioned statement, it’s clear that there was no closed sale yet, he was still trying to get a better offer from some other potentially interested parties … so there was no agreement reached …
He clearly said ““On Friday I wrote in my newsletter: “Game is over. Next week I will announce the new owner of domaining.com”. A Few bloggers started to announce domaining.com was sold. It’s still not the case otherwise I would have previously sent a private note to the bloggers.”
Then he said “After many offers received finally one came from an investor willing to pay the reserve I had set. So I checked if the other prospects may counter this offer. It’s when I abruptly decided to announce in my newsletter (potentially read by the prospects) that next week I will announce a new buyer. This little sentence was targeted to the potential buyers: With the hope that seeing they were losing the buying opportunity they will counter offer and I will maximize the sale.
But things never happen as one would like otherwise the life will be too easy: The bad news is this investor vanished, the sale fell through, ouch!”
If you are looking for other offers from someone else that means your deal with the “investor willing to pay the reserve” has not being closed.
Ergo, there was no closed sale at that time … no remorse and no reneged deal. since a deal was not closed yet, and until a deal is not closed you have the right to change your mind … 🙂
Whatever the reasons behind this announcement, keep in mind Francois does not utilize English that eloquently. I’d rather give him the benefit of the doubt, until the sale commences or falls through.
Domaining.com domain name by itself could fetch 7 figures. What does MIke Berkens say? Website included, Domaining.com at low seven figures is a bargain. I hope a position of oversight for Francois comes attached to the deal.
“Domaining.com domain name by itself could fetch 7 figures.”
Based on what criteria? on what stats? Elaborate a bit … otherwise is just smoke and mirrors …
IMHO, considered stand-alone (domain only), Domain.com and Domains.com could be 7 figures names, while Domaining.com is at best 6 figures, just compare stats, branding power, etc, you can add traffic as well if you want …
That’s just it. Domains and Domain are long gone and will never be available or for sale, because they describe the industry that created them. So is web, register, host . . . Domaining is about the last one out there, and it’s good enough! Brands ending in, “ing,” do pretty well. AOL has Advertising.com.
Plus there is a business and it has traffic. It’s a site. It’s popular. Aren’t you supposed to multiply a couple of years of the income? And some businesses sell for more than that!
I like the coding, the features, and Francois just made it responsive. Low 7 figures is okay.
About the domain pricing, I don’t see from you any figures, stats or data supporting your 7 figures valuation.
As concerns the business on it, you have to consider, among main factors, revenue (and its sources), cost structure and earnings figures, which comes from traffic, but I see a business with low barrier to entry, not so difficult to replicate, even improved.
Furthermore, revenue and profitability figures, as it seems by some comments here, have not being disclosed even to potential buyer … don’t know you, but I never buy sight unseen … 🙂
It’s intuition. Racing.com sold for near 1/2 million. Elliot is branding on DomainInvesting.com – wonder what price would tempt him to part with it if it included his archived posts? DomainInvesting.com is another, ing, brand. . . If Francois continues to helm and produce it, there is no telling how far it could go. And it generated five figures per year, I am sure. That would pay for financing, if it stays in place. What do you think?
About the domain pricing, I don’t see from you any figures, peers comparison, stats or data supporting your 7 figures valuation.
As concerns the business on it, you have to consider, among main factors, revenue (and its sources), cost structure and earnings figures, which comes from traffic, but I see a business with low barrier to entry, not so difficult to replicate, even improved.
Furthermore, revenue and profitability figures, as it seems by some comments here, have not being disclosed even to potential buyer … don’t know you, but I never buy sight unseen … 🙂
Louise,
I don’t buy a business only on “intuition”, but you can do that at your own risk … lol 😀
BTW, valuating a company/business with multiples on revenues is one of the worst method, because, ceteris paribus, it doesn’t consider that different businesses can have very different profitability, cash flow generation, NWC, financial structures, etc.
This method has created a lot of “bubbles”, especially, but not only, in the high-tech business, for ex with start-ups whose valuations are totally or almost totally unrelated to their ability to generate cash (if not net profits), or are related to factors (unique users and similar concepts …) which don’t automatically convert into profitability and when convert, they do in different ways.
But this is a long story …
That’s why usually it’s preferable using a valuation based on FCF (free cash flow) generation, together with multiples on profitability (usually Ebitda), even if specific additional (internal or external) factors could have to be considered, on a case-by-case basis.
As regards Domaining.com, show us its figures (P&L, balance sheet, CF statement), details about its business plan, etc and at that point we can have an idea of how much the business can be worth … otherwise it’s just hot air …
If it’s true François does not want to disclose the figures to potential buyers, well I can easily guess why … 😉
Good luck with it!
Thanx for your thoughtful response. I am going to bookmark it, as a lesson in finance! I had to Google ceteris paribus, all things being equal. So nice to converse with someone who spouts a little latin!
Nice to talk to you as well Louise :), have a good time!
How does a guy who operates a escrow service, announce a sale before the money is in escrow?
I can’t see a buyer involved in 7 figure talks, not having any back history when it comes to credibility, and simply running away sounds very unprofessional. Only way he could even hint of a sale is if money hit escrow, and they were just awaiting transfer, and completion.
Sometimes people run into problems, need cash quick, have great assets, but don’t want to fire sale them to raise the quick cash. Then stuff like this happens.
@ Acro:
It’s not a question of “using English that eloquently”, English is not my native language as well, as you can see … 🙂
His English is clear enough and the facts he mentioned clearly show that there was no closed deal at that time … all the rest is speculation … hot air …
I’m not saying that he won’t be able to reach a deal, I just said that at that time there was no closed deal …
so there’s no benefit of the doubt I have to give him …
Hey, he needs all the money he can get to pay the high Euro taxes.
Give him a break man!
Wow – give the guy a break…
Who cares what he said, maybe there was a last minute diligence problem, who knows? Fact is, the property is still up for sale and whether it sells for 1.2mm or 300k, it’s still a great payday for anyone who builds a website and has curated it for the last many years and kept us informed on all the gossip and going-ons across the industry…I hope the next operator does such a great job…
There is surely no reason to speculate on what happened and what will happen. If he gets his buyer, then all the best to him/her. But beating up on the seller is just not in good spirit, especially when Domaining.com has probably the greatest reach to the industry of any other property. Go and get the 1.2mm Francois – best of luck to you…
Mike,
Let’s get a blog post to analyze the sale going. What say you?
We may need to ballpark certain figures based on public information but it would be a fun, useful exercise and channel things more positively!
-Kevin
I have done business with Francois Carrillo in the past and he has always been very professional and helpful.
I think people are judging here too quickly with too little info! its amazing…
Francois has provided the community with useful services, such as an escrow with one of the lowest commissions (I have used it many times). Also, he is always ready to help when he can: I remember once he helped me with a French-speaking ccTLD manager because the registry didn’t let me transfer the domain. OK, he may not have used the best negotiation strategy, but reading comments defining him shady and his services poor bothers me.
BREAKING UPDATE:
Now looks it’s official … no sale …
http://domaingang.com/domain-news/official-francois-remains-aboard-domaining-com-ship/