Tag Archives: fabulous

Sun 29th November 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Dark Blue Sea Accepts PGA Buyout, What Does it Mean for Fabulous? - Photon Group to acquire Dark Blue Sea. Does a nickel make all the difference in the world? Dark Blue Sea has accepted (pdf) Photon Group’s takeover bid after Photon upped its offer from 30 cents per share to 35 cents per share. In a joint statement, Dark Blue Sea Chairman Vernon Wills stated “We are pleased with the increased offer. It is in the best interests of DBS that this transaction is concluded as promptly and efficiently as possible.” Let’s rewind ... read more ...
Fri 30th October 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Photon Group Submits Formal Takeover Offer for Dark Blue Sea - Group submits plan to takeover Fabulous’ parent company. Photon Group has submitted its formal share purchase statement (pdf) for its planned purchase of outstanding Dark Blue Sea shares. Dark Blue Sea is the parent company of domain name registrar and parking company Fabulous. Photon owns almost 30% of the outstanding shares in the company. In a letter to shareholders, Photon Group Executive Chairman Tim Hughes says the offer represents a premium to the average ... read more ...
Tue 6th October 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Dark Blue Sea and GoDaddy Get Back Together - Australian domain company signs new sales agreement with Go Daddy. Dark Blue Sea, parent company of Fabulous, has had a rough year. It probably hit bottom back in July, when GoDaddy pulled out of a sales distribution agreement with the company. Perhaps it’s one of those on-again, off-again relationships, as the two registrars have inked another sales agreement. This is good news, given that an outside investor is currently trying to takeover the company. I ... read more ...
Thu 1st October 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Takeover Bid Launched for Dark Blue Sea - Photon launches takeover of Dark Blue Sea. Photon Group has launched a takeover bid for Dark Blue Sea, parent company of Fabulous. Photon currently owns 30.55% of all issued ordinary shares of Dark Blue Sea. The company is offering to buy outstanding ordinary shares for 30 cents per share, which it says is a 56% premium to the average share price over the past month. Dark Blue Sea’s second largest shareholder, Huon Capital, says it intends to accept the offer ... read more ...
Mon 31st August 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Dark Blue Sea Profit Plummets 74% - Company’s portfolio still profitable, but challenges abound. Dark Blue Sea has reported its annual results for the period ending June, and it isn’t pretty. The company reported profits plunged 74.38% to only $695,955 AUD for the year. This is well below the company’s guidance just a couple months ago. In the prior year the company earned $2.72M. Revenue fell 14.9% to $26.65M. Working capital fell from $5.18M at the beginning of the period to $4.1M at the ... read more ...
Mon 10th August 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Photon Group Continues to Buy Dark Blue Sea Shares - Battle over Fabulous’ parent company continues to escalate. Photon Group Limited, which is trying to force out the Chairman of the Board of Dark Blue Sea and place two of its own on the board, continues to buy shares in Dark Blue Sea. According to a regulatory filing (pdf), Photon has acquired nearly 1.8 million shares of Dark Blue Sea (DBS.AX) on the open market since the beginning of July. The biggest acquisition was 1.227M shares on August 5 for 25 cents each. ... read more ...
Thu 9th July 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Board Battle Erupts during Dark Blue Sea - Outside shareholders push to remove Chairman. A battle over domain company Dark Blue Sea’s (ASX: DBS) Board of Directors has erupted, with a significant shareholder calling for an Extraordinary General Meeting to remove the existing Chairman and insert two of its own to the board. Photon Group Limited, which owns about 28.25% of the company, called for the meeting and election. The group cites a nearly 75% drop in year-over-year profits for pushing for the change. ... read more ...
Thu 18th June 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Fabulous Adds Physical Security and Whois Privacy - Domain name registrar adds new security features and advanced whois privacy. Domain name registrar Fabulous is adding two new features including a whois privacy service that sets the bar for customer service. The features will be available July 1. The first new feature is a physical security device that adds additional security to sensitive areas of your account, such as name pushes and nameserver changes. The USB device delivers a one time-use passcode with the ... read more ...
Thu 2nd April 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Moore Stepping Down as CEO of Dark Blue Sea - CEO Richard Moore not renewing contract. Richard Moore is stepping down as chief executive officer of Dark Blue Sea (ASX: DBS) effective at the end of June. Dark Blue Sea is parent company of Fabulous, a popular domain name registrar and domain parking service for domainers. According to a press release (pdf), Moore will work part time with the company in an executive director role. Moore has been CEO of the company since 2001. The company has promoted current ... read more ...
Thu 19th March 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Which Domain Name Registrar is Best for Domainers? - @ Ozie, contact me for some wholesale one-name IDN’s. Great prices if you buy in bulk. Plus, I can set up a nice lunch with Todd Han if you bring over 1000 domains or more to his registrar! Be sure and wear boots if you’re under 6 foot. @Tony K – Ever see what GoDaddy charges once you get to the shopping cart checkout? You’ll get the fees, trust me. *My advice to registrars is to just price out new registrations at the full price you’re charging, with no “surprise” add-on ... read more ...
Wed 11th March 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domain Name Industry Acquisition Watch - 2009 could include more mergers, acquisitions, and outright closings. Domain name companies including registrars, parking companies, and portfolio holders are considering their strategic options in 2009. Domain Name Wire has learned that Dark Blue Sea (ASX: DBS) has been shopping its services businesses, including Fabulous parking and registration. Dark Blue Sea CEO Richard Moore wouldn’t comment directly on what the company is considering, but he did refer me ... read more ...
Tue 3rd March 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Survey: Go Daddy Top Domain Name Registrar - GoDaddy tops survey for fourth year in a row, eNom continues slide. For four years running, GoDaddy has topped the list of domain name registrars in the annual Domain Name Wire Survey. GoDaddy took home top honors in this year’s survey with 43% of the vote. Below are the top 5 vote getters, followed by analysis: 1. GoDaddy 44% 2. Moniker 18% 3. Fabulous 10% 4. eNom 9% 5. 11 5% GoDaddy is popular amongst all types of domain owners. This year it even came out ... read more ...
Mon 2nd March 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Dark Blue Sea Profit Down 80% - Domain company sees profit plummet as revenue slips 6%. Dark Blue Sea ASX (Code: DBS), parent company of domain parking provider and domain registrar Fabulous, reported that profits for the second half of 2008 plummeted 80.5% compared to the same period in 2007 as revenue dipped 6.3%. Revenue totaled $14.56M compared to $15.53M in the second half of 2007 (All dollar figures in Australian Dollars). The company blamed a weakening United States ad market for the revenue ... read more ...
Mon 9th February 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Fabulous Follows a 80/20 Rule - Parking company moves to invite only model. Domain parking company and domain registrar Fabulous is no longer accepting web applications for its domain name parking services and wholesale registration accounts. It will only accept referrals going forward. In fact, the sign-up button at Fabulous.com has been removed. (Fabulous customers who wish to transfer domains to buyers can send them a link to open a retail account). You’re going to start seeing more of this ... read more ...
Wed 7th January 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Companies Have Fiduciary Responsibility to Lock Down Domain Names - A simple, cheap method to lock down domains exists. Public company CTOs need to get on the ball. CheckFree is warning 5 million customers about its domain name mishap last month where its nameservers were changed to forward its web site. All the perpetrators did was get a password to CheckFree’s account at Network Solutions, log in, and change the nameservers to point to another server. This same thing could happen to other companies, and public company executives ... read more ...
Mon 29th December 2008
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
The Perils of Trying to Go Public - NameMedia’s withdrawn IPO more painful than it looks. It may appear that NameMedia’s decision last week to to drop its planned initial public offering is just a temporary setback. Aside from the costs of filing its S-1 to go public, going on the investor roadshow, and obliging quite period regulations, did it really cost the company anything? The answer is yes. And it’s not the time, money, or decreased morale that hurts the most. It’s the disclosure. By ... read more ...
Fri 12th December 2008
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
How “Google Direct” May Hurt You in a Long Run - Google Adsense for Domains’ mass-market approach will strain domain name industry. Almost all of us were surprised today when Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) said it was opening up its Adsense for Domains program. It used to offer domain advertising relationships only to people with massive traffic, then it shut down the application process completely, and now it’s offering it up to anyone with a domain. From talking to a couple sources, it sounds like Google partners ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Moniker MaxLock Gets Maxed Out - New Portfolio MaxLock covers more and costs less. In September I wrote about MaxLock, a new product from Moniker that improved the security of domain names by making it harder to transfer domains out. Just recently CheckFree.com had its domain hijacked when someone logged in to CheckFree.com’s Network Solutions account and changed the nameservers. Fabulous has a free product called Executive Lock that would have prevented this hijacking. Now Moniker has put ... read more ...
Thu 11th December 2008
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Fabulous’ Executive Lock Would Have Saved CheckFree.com - Service prevents nameserver changes without multiple levels of confirmation. In light of the CheckFree.com nameserver “theft” last week, I opined that registrars must offer added security for important domain names. Specifically, important domain names should require more than just a username and password in order to change the nameservers. It turns out at least one registrar has an official product offering to do just that: Fabulous offers Executive Lock. ... read more ...
Mon 24th November 2008
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
New Registrars Added to RegistrarJudge.com - 7 more registrars added to domain name registrar review site. Six more registrars are available for reviewing at Registrar Judge, Domain Name Wire’s sister site. Domainers can now review ResellerClub, Dynadot, Gandi.net, DomainDiscover, Joker.com, directNIC, and NameCheap. The registrars were added at the request of Registrar Judge users. ResellerClub and Dynadot were added last week and since then ResellerClub has shot to the top of the charts. At Registrar ... read more ...
Mon 4th August 2008
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
DBS: Domain Parking Continues Downward Spiral - Dark Blue Sea reports another drop in domain parking revenue. Australian domain name company Dark Blue Sea, which runs Fabulous, reported another drop in domain parking revenue in its latest quarterly update. Just two months ago Domain Name Wire wrote about how the company’s parking revenue from its 600,000 domains was down 18% in just one quarter. The news isn’t getting better. In the quarter ending June 2008 the company earned $1,003,000 from its company owned ... read more ...
Tue 6th May 2008
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
DBS: Domain Parking Revenue Plummeting - Domain company reports sharp drop in domain parking revenue. Domain name portfolio holder, registrar, and parking company Dark Blue Sea today reported a massive drop in parking revenue compared to last quarter. The company generated $1,370,000 from parking its own portfolio, down from $1,661,000 last quarter. That’s an 18% drop in just one quarter. A year ago in the same quarter the company pulled in $1,949,000 from parking its own portfolio of domain names. Customers ... read more ...
Fri 18th April 2008
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Survey: Sedo Top Domain Name Parking Service - For the second year in a row, Sedo tops the Domain Name Wire survey. Sedo is the top choice for parking domain names, according to a survey of 841 domain name industry participants. 48% of those surveyed picked Sedo as the best domain name parking program. Last year Sedo was the winner as well but only garnered 32% of the vote. In the 2006 survey Sedo only pulled in 19%. With domain parking in upheavel, Sedo has escaped relatively unscathed. Sedo provides ads ... read more ...
Mon 31st March 2008
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Dark Blue Sea: Domain Portfolio Worth $600 Million Retail - Company values retail value of portfolio at approximately $1,000 USD per domain. A Dark Blue Sea investor presentation (pdf) suggests that the retail value of its 570,000 domain portfolio is about $600 million. The presentation also provides a wealth of other statistics and details on its deal with domain registrar GoDaddy. Dark Blue Sea, an Australian company, is well known to domain name investors for its Fabulous domain registrar and domain parking services. As ... read more ...
Wed 26th March 2008
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
TRAFFIC Down Under Preview - A preview of TRAFFIC’s upcoming Australia show. The popular TRAFFIC domain name conference heads to Australia this year for the first TRAFFIC Down Under November 18-20. The event is being promoted by Fabulous.com and TRAFFIC founders Rick Schwatz and Howard Neu. I recently caught up with Fabulous to understand how this show came about and what we can expect. Domain Name Wire: How did this event evolve? Fabulous: There has always been a lot of interest from the ... read more ...