Here's the The Lowdown
from DN Journal,
updated daily
to
fill you in on the latest buzz going around the domain name industry.
The Lowdown is
compiled by DN Journal Editor & Publisher Ron
Jackson.
Former
Moniker VP Victor Pitts Takes New Position as VP at
DomainIt.com + Sex.com Auction Called Off
Domain industry veteran Victor Pitts,
who recently left his position as a Vice President at Oversee.net's
Moniker.com, has accepted a new executive position
with Cincinnati, Ohio
based
registrar DomainIt.com. In
his new role, Pitts will be responsible for growing market
share and profits for DomainIt’s core domain
registration business, as well as evaluating and
overseeing new business ventures for the company.
During
Pitts's years at Moniker.com, domain registrations grew
from 300,000 to 3 million. Prior to joining
Moniker, Pitts ran Nexlook Designs, his own web
hosting and development company, and also had a successful
career as a national sales executive with Motorola.
Pitts
said, “In
addition to helping grow core services, I’ll be working
to better understand and harness some of DomainIt’s
impressive intellectual property to better serve clients.
This company has a strong foundation of providing quality
services for nearly 15 years, and CEO/Founder Paul
Goldstone's vision of
Victor
Pitts
Vice President, DomainIT.com
the
future is ambitious. Together, we have an excellent
opportunity to grow the business by providing better
services for both domain investors and business owners.”
Paul
Goldstone
DomainIt.com Founder & CEO
Goldstone
said, “We think there are some significant
opportunities being overlooked in the
current business climate. Bringing Victor on board
was an opportunity we couldn’t pass up. He will
be working on some exciting new business ventures,
where his leadership experience and industry
connections can benefit DomainIt tremendously. We
fully expect him to hit the ground running.”
DomainIt
is an ICANN-accredited registration and hosting
company that was founded in 1996. The company
developed the first ever domain search
interface to determine if a particular domain was
available for registration.
As
a domain investor with more than 1,000
names in his portfolio, Goldstone said he knows
what a professional domain investor is looking for
in a Registrar. In addition to running DomainIt,
he also operates DomainSearch.com
and domain industry directory, iGoldrush.com.
Goldstone is also a member
of the ICANN Registrar Stakeholder Group.
He designed and maintains the official ICANN
website for that group.
Elsewhere,
the Sex.com foreclosure auction
that had been scheduled for Thursday
(March 18) has been cancelled. The
move came after creditors of current
Sex.com owner Escom, LLC filed an
involuntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy
petition against Escom today in the United
States Bankruptcy Court for the Central
District of California (San Fernando
Valley Division).
A press
release says the petitioners took this
action to protect their interests and to
maximize value for all other creditors and
equity holders. The filing will stay
the public auction foreclosure proceedings
which petitioners believe would have
diminished the value of Escom's assets. With
the fate of Sex.com now in court, it will
likely be some time before the domain's
future is determined.
In
another important legal note, a confidential
settlement has been reached in the
lawsuit between Thought Convergence Inc.
(parent company of TrafficZ.com) and Jay
Westerdal. A dispute developed after
Thought Convergence acquired Westerdal's
company, Name Intelligence for $16
million in 2008. DomainNameWire.com
released the settlement news Sunday
night but since it broke over the weekend we
wanted to bring it your attention in case
you missed it as this is an important
positive development for both sides.
One
other note today - Francois
Carrillo, the owner of brandable
domains sales site Mocus.com,
has decided the site needs a new
brand of its own. As a result
Carrillo (who also owns the popular
domain news aggregation site Domaining.com)
announced that Mocus.com will be
reborn as Catchy.com within
the next few days. Carrillo said he
was able to acquire the new domain
name for an undisclosed
amount.
"The
site will be redesigned and the
service improved," Carrillo
said, adding, "the core will
continue to be the promotion and
sale of catchy domains."
We need your help to keep giving domainers The
Lowdown, so please email [email protected]with any interesting information you might have. If possible,
include the source of your information so we can check it out (for
example a URL if you read it in a forum or on a site
elsewhere).
