Sam Nunez explains the RevenueDirect acquisition and the potential for future acquisitions.

Sam Nunez, VP of Product Management for Sedo , answers some questions about the companies acquisition of RevenueDirect.

Domain Name Wire: When did Sedo first enter into discussions with RevenueDirect/Dotster about acquiring the parking company?

Nunez: The successful round of negotiations started last December. We had some on-off discussions with Dotster for more than a year though.

DNW: Sedo had a listing agreement with Dotster already in place, correct? I mean where Sedo listings were shown as alternatives on domain searches at Dotster.

Nunez: Yes. The current relationship is akin to an affiliate program for our aftermarket services. As part of the new strategic partnership, we intend to take it to the next level.

DNW: Your press release on the deal mentions monetizing Dotster’s large portfolio of domains. Does this refer to its registrar-owned domains, customers’ domains, or both?

Nunez: Registrar owned. Dotster’s customers that are using the RD platform are considered as RD customers and are included in the acquisition.

DNW: Will Sedo parking pages be used as default “coming soon” landers on Dotster customers’ pages?

Nunez: Yes.

DNW: Will Sedo, with its newly added domains, be able to offer a higher revenue share to customers?

Nunez: In the short term, there will be no change for RD customers. As we take the best of both products, we expect to be able to pass through even better monetization levels to RD customers, as well as to Sedo existing customers.

DNW: Is Sedo looking for other acquisitions in the domain parking space?

Nunez: Yes. Obviously we are not going to acquire for the sake of acquiring, but challenging times always offer better buying opportunities for the stronger players. Our industry is maturing, so this is bound to happen.

© DomainNameWire.com 2009.

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Sedo has acquired RevenueDirect, Dotster’s domain name parking service.

Sedo has acquired domain name parking company RevenueDirect.

For established domain parking companies, acquiring another domain parking company usually doesn’t make sense. Parking companies rarely have long term contracts with customers, so the acquirer risks seeing acquired customers leaving the ship after a takeover. But this acquisition makes sense for a couple reasons:

U.S. Dominance: For a long time, Sedo has been known as the dominant domain parking company and Google partner outside the United States, while DomainSponsor has the Google lock inside the United States. With this purchase Sedo will bolster its position in the United States.

Higher Revenue Share: By acquiring more customers, Sedo can increase its revenue share rate with Google. This will put it in a position to offer more to domainers, improving its overall positioning. Further, Google domain parking contracts include tiers with different revenue share rates. This acquisition may push it into a higher tier.

Registrar Affiliation: Call it a bonus, but Sedo’s domain parking purchase comes with a new deal with the affiliated registrar, Dotster. It will send Dotster customers to Sedo for both domain parking and domain purchases.

According to RegistrarStats, Dotster is the 15th largest domain name registrar with over 1 million domains under management. The domain server ns1.revenuedirect.com has over 225,000 domains according to DomainTools.

This may not be Sedo’s last domain parking company acquisition…

© DomainNameWire.com 2009.

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Sedo and Parked.com selected as top domain parking companies.

For the third year in a row, Sedo has topped Domain Name Wire’s survey for best domain name parking company. Here are the top 4 vote getters including percentage of the vote:

1. Sedo /SedoPro 33%
2. Parked.com 17%
3. NameDrive 11%
4. Fabulous 6%
5. GoDaddy 5%
6. Google Adsense for Domains 4%
7. DomainSponsor 4%

Compared to last year, Parked and NameDrive switched places, Fabulous jumped up a spot, and GoDaddy and Google made their entrance on the chart.

The rankings shake up a bit if you control for the number of people who have used each service. Is Sedo #1 just because more people are familiar with it than other services? To find out, I took the top 5 and calculated the percentage of votes as the top parking service divided by the percentage of respondents who said they had used that parking service:

1. Parked.com 58%
2. Sedo/SedoPro 51%
3. GoDaddy 40%
4. NameDrive 35%
5. Fabulous 34%

So the answer is no, it’s not just that Sedo is more well known. But it also shows that, controlling for how many people have used the service, Parked.com comes out on top.

Yesterday Sedo acquired RevenueDirect, a primarily U.S. domain parking company. The goal was to bolster its U.S. presence as Sedo is generally known as strong in Europe. As it turns out, Parked.com is voted the top domain parking company among U.S. respondents:

1. Parked.com 28%
2. Sedo 22%
3. Fabulous 8%

For more survey results, visit domainnamewire.com/survey.

To read reviews of domain parking services, visit Parking Judge.

© DomainNameWire.com 2009.

Review and rate domain name parking companies at Parking Judge.