Bankruptcy judge approves sale of domain names to DONE! Ventures.

Earlier today, U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge Brendan L. Shannon handed down an order affirming the sale of a number of eToys’ domain names to DONE! Ventures. The domains included in the $200,000 deal are:

birthdays.com
birthdays.net
birthdays.org
birthday.net
ebirthdays.com
e-birthdays.com
e-birthdays.net
happybirthdays.com
eparties.com
pinata.com

The domain name whois records for these domains still shows eToys, but you can expect that to change shortly.

In addition to the DONE! Ventures deal, the judge earlier approved Toys ‘R’ Us purchase of a number of brands and intellectual property for $2.15M.

After reviewing the judge’s orders on both the DONE! Ventures deal and Toys ‘R’ Us deal, it will be interesting to see if any objections are filed to the Toys.com purchase for $1.25M. I know there are some entities that would have bid on the domain name had they known about the auction, and the judge’s orders all include statements that the sale constitutes the highest offer received. Another party could conceivably make a higher offer, and this would have to be reported to the bankruptcy court.

Domain Name Wire will keep you posted as the judge issues more orders in this case.

© DomainNameWire.com 2009.

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Domain name auction platform relaunches after long hiatus.

Remember Bido? Yeah, I know, it’s been a long time. The once a day domain name auction house launched to much buzz only to be sidelined by technical snafus. After a long (and I mean long) wait, Bido finally rears its head again today.

When you log into Bido, you won’t notice a bunch of new features. Most of the work has been on the back end. But there are some neat twists, all designed to get the domain name community active in the auctions.

“Experts” can comment on domain names before they go to auction, and other users can rate the comments. Experts get the benefit of exposure, as you can see in the graphic below:

In addition to reading expert’s comments, Bido users can click tabs to read about the expert, see their latest blog posts, or see expert-created links and additional information.

I expect more features soon, including perhaps a way to sell domains beyond the once-a-day listings (pure speculation) and auctions for other types of merchandise (not speculation).

I loved the concept of Bido when it first launched. The site also sold some decent domains at decent prices. Hopefully it will be able to pick up where it left off.

© DomainNameWire.com 2009.

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Web site creation system open to new registrations.

DevHub, an online web site creation system, is finally open to new users.

DevHub allows users to create web sites using a simple, drag-and-drop system. Using dozens of APIs, users can add real estate listings, local search results, advertisements, and job listings into their web sites by literally dragging them onto the page.

Examples of web sites created with DevHub include BankProfiles.com, InvestmentsofWashington.com, and BestSeattleSushi.com (see video below).

The service makes sure to differentiate itself from other WYSIWYG and content management solutions, blogging tools, and domain parking. As DevHub describes, it:

In short, the DevHub platform is open to anyone who wants to be rewarded for the value they bring to users on the website they create. Developers, Internet Entrepreneurs, and Affiliate Marketers are all welcome as long as they meet our quality standards.

The service is free, and DevHub makes money from sharing revenue from affiliate actions and advertising. Customers can also add their own affiliate and pay-per-click advertising code, which of course doesn’t share revenue with DevHub.

DevHub is a product of EVO Media Group.

Below: DevHub video showing creation of BestSeattleSushi.com.

© DomainNameWire.com 2009.

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