NL.com ,QR.com ,MutualFunds.com and Other Premium Domain Names are Up For Sale
Heritage Auctions announced that it will be holdinf its inaugural Domain Name & Intellectual Property Auctionun on November 21st in New York,and many valuable domains are up for sale .
The auction features some great domain names including MutualFunds.com ,Animation.com ,QR.com ,NL.com and Bicycle.com .Other highlights in the auction include : Numismatics.com, Alexandria.com, Suit.com, Tie.com, Sociology.com, LuxuryBags.com; EqualRights.com and CurrencyExchange.com.
“Millions of dollars of Domain Names are traded every single month that the public isn’t aware of.Now, for the first time, the broader public is going to have the opportunity to experience the market firsthand. Digital assets offer a global opportunity unlike any other to the right buyer or business; they offer a different kind of asset and a different way to think about collecting overall,” said Aron Meystedt, the Founder and Director of the Domain Names & Intellectual Property category at Heritage.
“Domain names are purely digital, have virtually zero carrying costs and they offer the ability to generate passive revenue while you hold them.This is digital Real Estate. It’s an investment that will never need a new foundation or a new roof but will remain evergreen in the eyes of buyers and sellers, especially if you are lucky enough right now to get your hands on a one or two word or letter dot-com, which are the gold standard when it comes to these investments,”added Mystedt .
Verisign Reports 9% year-over-year revenue growth in Q3,2013
Verisign,the global leader in domain names,released the financial results for the third quarter ended September 30,2013 .
The report reveals a revenue of $244 million ,up nine percent from the same quarter a year ago.The net income for the Q3 is $81 million ,compared to the net income of $78 million in the same quarter in 2012 .
You can read the press release after the jump :
“VeriSign, Inc., and subsidiaries (“Verisign”) reported revenue of $244 million for the third quarter of 2013, up 9 percent from the same quarter in 2012. Verisign reported net income of $81 million and diluted earnings per share (EPS) of $0.53 for the third quarter of 2013, compared to net income of $78 million and diluted EPS of $0.47 in the same quarter in 2012. The operating margin was 54.5 percent for the third quarter of 2013 compared to 51.9 percent for the same quarter in 2012.
Third Quarter Non-GAAP Financial Results
Verisign reported, on a non-GAAP basis, net income of $90 million and diluted EPS of $0.59 for the third quarter of 2013, compared to net income of $84 million and diluted EPS of $0.50 for the same quarter in 2012. The non-GAAP operating margin was 58.8 percent for the third quarter of 2013 compared to 56.4 percent for the same quarter in 2012. A table reconciling the GAAP to the non-GAAP results (which excludes items described below) is appended to this release.
“Our team continued to execute well and delivered sound operational and financial results. Also, during the third quarter we repurchased 6.8 million shares for $331 million,” commented Jim Bidzos, executive chairman, president and chief executive officer.
As a result of Verisign’s ongoing evaluation of its tax structure, Verisign expects to liquidate for tax purposes one of its domestic subsidiaries during the fourth quarter of 2013, which it expects will allow it to claim a worthless stock deduction on its 2013 federal income tax return. If claimed, based on preliminary estimates, Verisign expects to record an income tax benefit during the fourth quarter of 2013, ranging from approximately $300 million to $400 million, related to the worthless stock deduction, net of valuation allowances and uncertain tax positions recorded as required under GAAP. The worthless stock deduction may be subject to audit and adjustment by the IRS, which could result in reversal of all, part or none of the income tax benefit, or could result in a benefit higher than the net amount Verisign initially records. Verisign cannot guarantee that the liquidation of this subsidiary will occur as described, or at all, or what the ultimate outcome, use or amount of benefit Verisign receives, if any, will be. The financial statement carrying value of this subsidiary is not material.
While Verisign expects its domestic operations to generate sufficient taxable income to fully use the tax benefits of the ordinary loss from the worthless stock deduction, Verisign is analyzing and evaluating various scenarios for realizing the benefits. Although Verisign’s current intent remains to indefinitely reinvest outside of the U.S. those funds held by foreign subsidiaries that have not been previously taxed in the U.S. and accordingly Verisign has not provided deferred U.S. taxes for such funds, Verisign anticipates reevaluating its overall business structure and financing of foreign operations as a part of this analysis. If the conclusion of this analysis results in a change to Verisign’s current strategy related to foreign operations, Verisign may be required to accrue for an additional U.S. tax obligation, although it cannot predict what such amount, if any, may be. Based upon the audited statutory financial statements of Verisign’s foreign subsidiaries as of December 31, 2012, on a combined basis Verisign’s foreign subsidiaries have up to approximately $600 million of distributable capital under applicable foreign statutes. Verisign does not know what the ultimate outcome, if any, will be resulting from this analysis and evaluation for realizing the benefits.
Financial Highlights
Verisign ended the third quarter with Cash, Cash Equivalents and Marketable Securities of $1.8 billion, an increase of $250 million from year-end 2012.
Cash flow from operations was $134 million for the third quarter compared with $122 million for the same quarter in 2012.
Deferred revenues on Sept. 30, 2013, totaled $858 million, an increase of $45 million from year-end 2012.
Capital expenditures were $13 million in the third quarter of 2013.
During the third quarter, Verisign repurchased 6.8 million shares of its common stock for $331 million. At Sept. 30, 2013, $697 million remained available and authorized under the current share repurchase program.
For purposes of calculating diluted EPS, the third quarter diluted share count included 10.5 million shares related to the subordinated convertible debentures, compared with 9.2 million shares in the same quarter in 2012. These represent diluted shares and not shares that have been issued.
Business Highlights
Verisign Registry Services added 1.55 million net new names during the third quarter, ending with 125.9 million active domain names in the zone for .com and .net, which represents a 5 percent increase over the zone at the end of the third quarter in 2012.
In the third quarter, Verisign processed 8.3 million new domain name registrations as compared to 7.8 million in the same quarter in 2012.
The final .com and .net renewal rate for the second quarter of 2013 was 72.7 percent compared with 72.9 percent for the same quarter in 2012. Renewal rates are not fully measurable until 45 days after the end of the quarter.
Non-GAAP Items
Non-GAAP financial results exclude the following items that are included under GAAP: Discontinued operations, stock-based compensation, amortization of other intangible assets, impairments of goodwill and other intangible assets, restructuring charges, contingent interest payments to holders of the subordinated convertible debentures, unrealized gain/loss on contingent interest derivative on subordinated convertible debentures, and non-cash interest expense. Non-GAAP financial information is also adjusted for a 28 percent tax rate starting from the third quarter of 2012, and 30 percent for the other periods presented herein, both of which differ from the GAAP tax rate. A table reconciling the GAAP to non-GAAP operating income and net income is appended to this release. “
ICANN : Announcement of the Launch of the Implementation Advisory Group for Competition, Consumer Trust and Consumer Choice
ICANN is pleased to announce the launch of the Implementation Advisory Group for Competition, Consumer Trust and Consumer Choice (IAG-CCT).
Thirty-eight (38) individuals responded to the Call for Volunteers. IAG-CCT is an open group convened to serve for a limited duration and scope, focusing exclusively on evaluating the proposed metrics for data gathering to support a future review that is mandated by the Affirmation of Commitments (AoC).1
We welcome the following volunteers as members of the newly convened IAG-CCT:
Ron Andruff
Michael R. Nelson
Brian Beckham
Aga Neme
Eric Brunner-Williams
David Payne
Phil Buckingham
Ephraim Percy Kenyanito
Olga Cavalli
Artur Piechocki
Nathalie Coupet
Harmut Richard Glaser
Steve DelBianco
Santiago Rodriguez Ortiz
Chaitanya Dhareshwar
Jeremy Rowley
Ray Fassett
Carlton Samuels
Michael A. Flynn
Atdhe Sharku
Anjali Hansen
Judy Song-Marshall
Judith L. Harris
David C. Stuckman
A.B. Ishiaku
Christa Taylor
Yamoah Kwaku
Jeffrey Thomas
Cheryl Langdon-Orr
Umit Turk
Evan Leibovitch
Rudi Vansnick
Reg Levy
Christopher Wilkinson
Alfredo Lopez Hernandez
Darryl C. Wilson
Lyndel McDonald
Jonathan Zuck
To track the work of this group, please visit the IAG-CCT Wiki.
IAG-CCT Schedule and Operations
The IAG-CCT is expected to commence its work in November 2013 and produce its recommendations by July 2014.
A kick-off conference call will be scheduled in early November.
The Group will hold a meeting at ICANN 48 in Buenos Aires on Wednesday, 20 November, 17:00 to 19:00 UTC. Remote participation will be available and the meeting is open to all interested individuals. The IAG-CCT will be briefed on the status of work to date, including an introduction and overview of the project; overview of proposed metrics from the GNSO and the ALAC; and a staff update on the evaluation of proposed metrics.
A schedule of subsequent calls and meetings will be available on the IAG-CCT Wiki.
IAG-CCT Mandate
The mandate is to develop recommendations for the set of metrics to be collected by ICANN in preparation for a future review relating to New gTLDs1. Once the proposed metrics are delivered to the Board, the work of the IAG-CCT will be concluded. As directed by the Board, ICANN will develop the systems and collect the metrics approved through this process.
The IAG-CCT will be responsible for:
Evaluating the feasibility, utility and cost-effectiveness of adopting the recommendations of the GNSO Council [PDF, 203 KB] and the At-Large Advisory Committee [PDF, 491 KB] (ALAC) with respect to the metrics to be used in conducting the review;
Evaluating other inputs, including historical data regarding metrics used to evaluate earlier rounds of new gTLDs (2000, 2004);
Engaging in outreach with the GNSO, ALAC and other interested ICANN stakeholders on the proposed metrics;
Evaluating the staff analysis to be delivered to the IAG-CCT on the feasibility and utility of each of the proposed metrics, and whether the implementation costs are reasonable in light of the value of the information to be revealed;
Proposing to ICANN a set of metrics to be compiled by ICANN in advance of the AoC review of the New gTLDs, if and when such review team is to be convened.
Where the proposed metrics from the IAG-CCT differ from those recommended by the GNSO Council or the ALAC, the Group is expected to consult with the GNSO and ALAC to share its rationale, and determine whether the collective set of metrics recommended by the Group sufficiently address the goals of the GNSO and the ALAC.
This announcement was sourced from :
http://www.icann.org/en/news/announcements/announcement-24oct13-en.htm
Sedo To Hold .EU Auction – 60EUR Reserve
Sedo will be holding a .EU domain name auction .The auction features 249 .EU domain names,all with a 60 Euro reserve price .
The auction starts on October 31,2013 and will end seven days later,on November 7th,2013 .
Some interesting domain names included in the auction are :
Agregation.eu
ProSeminar.eu
Megapix.eu
WebAngel.eu
EndNote.eu
PCPower.eu
EasyFlirt.eu
Saugen.eu
Blitzen.eu
TempoLimit.eu
You can see the enitre inventory here .
EURid/UNESCO Report Finds Internationalised Domains Still To Reach Full Potential
Despite important advances, more work is needed by all parties if Internationalised Domain Names are to foster the growth of multilingualism online, according to the 2013 EURid-UNESCO World Report on Internationalised Domain Names (IDNs). This year the report features the cooperation of Verisign for the analysis of IDN data in the .com, .net and .eu registers.
The report will be presented at the Internet Governance Forum 2013 (IGF), in Bali, Indonesia, today (24 October).
According to the report only two percent of the world’s registered domain names are IDNs, or domain names that include characters from non-Latin scripts, such as Cyrillic or Arabic. This slow uptake is in stark contrast to the burgeoning multilingual content online.
Most if not all IDN implementations underperform because of poor user awareness and experience, which lead to poor uptake. In addition, the report finds there is poor support for IDNs in mobile devices that are extremely popular in many developing countries for accessing the internet.
However, where IDNs are used, there is a 99 percent correlation between the language or script of the domain name and the language of associated website content, a clear indication that IDNs have a vital part to play in fostering a multilingual internet.
“Languages are who we are,” states Janis Karklins, UNESCO Assistant Director-General in the report’s foreword. “By protecting them, we protect ourselves; by promoting them, we sustain cultural diversity. This must be true also for cyberspace. To have maximum impact, to be sustainable and to be beneficial to all, cyberspace must be inclusive. Every woman and every man should be able to speak and write in their mother tongue, and this is why IDNs are so important.”
This report builds on the 2012 World Report on IDN Deployment, and the 2011 study “IDNs State of Play”, which found that there was a significant correlation between IDNs and local language. The 2012 World Report concluded that Internationalised Domain Names (IDNs) are an essential building block towards creating a truly multilingual internet.
The future of IDNs
The launch of new IDN generic top-level domains (gTLDs) in late 2013, early 2014, and particularly the large number of top-level domains using Chinese characters, is expected to boost the market, providing an incentive for stakeholders to update internet infrastructure and improve user experience on popular Web applications in order to access potentially valuable markets. The new gTLDs may also help to raise end-users’ awareness that domain names can be in languages other than English
The statistics presented in the 2013 EURid–UNESCO World Report on IDNs are based on a data set of 228 million domain names, and include detailed information about more than one million IDNs from the .com, .net and .eu registers. The report also includes case studies of the IDN country code top-level domain registry experiences from the People’s Republic of China, the Republic of Korea, Viet Nam, Egypt, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and the Russian Federation.
Download the full 104 page report at link.eurid.eu/insights.
