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Hoagland
Founder, DomainsNewMedia.com LLC |
Hoagland,
founder of DomainsNewMedia.com
LLC, told us that in
exchange for MyrtleBeach.com
Intellistrand gave him $6.5
million plus their 50%
interest in several other
major geodomain sites they had
been operating jointly. That
gives Hoagland full ownership of
a group that includes
Honolulu.com, Baltimore.com,
Wiliamsburg.com, ParkCity.com,
Daytona.com and SouthCarolina.com.
Hoagland said the deal will also
resolve some oustanding
litigation between the two
partners allowing them to move
forward with their own wholly
owned projects.
Hoagland,
who was profiled in our July
2008 Cover
Story, has one of
the world's best geodomain
portfolios - a network that
includes Atlanta.com, BuenosAires.com,
HiltonHead.com and many
others. He also holds many
category-defining sites outside
the geo space, especially in the
sports enthusiast category -
including Fishing.com and
Shooting.com to name just
a couple. |
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In
other major news - promoter Rick
Latona has announced
cancellation of the T.R.A.F.F.I.C.
Hong Kong conference he was
planning to stage November
15-16, 2010. That would have
been the last of five T.R.A.F.F.I.C.
conferences Latona contracted to
produce this year under a
licensing agreement with
T.R.A.F.F.I.C. co-founders Rick
Schwartz and Howard Neu.
The other four ran earlier this
year in Las Vegas, Milan,
Vancouver and Dublin.
In
making the decision Latona noted
that an explosion
of new shows and
changing business conditions
have dramatically changed the
landscape since he took on
responsibility for |
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the
five shows in the summer of 2009
(Schwartz and Neu kept just one
2010 event for themselves - T.R.A.F.F.I.C.
Miami - coming up on
South Beach where it will
go on as scheduled Oct.
17-20, 2010 with a large
crowd expected to be on
hand).
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Rick
Latona |
Latona's
decision to take on five
shows (four of them
outside the U.S.) at a
time when the conference
calendar was already
getting crowded was an extremely
ambitious one - but
that is Latona. He is a
serial entrepreneur
(check out our December
2009 Cover
Story about
Latona to see how many
different businesses he
has been in) who swings
for the fences every
time. Home run hitters
strike out more than
other players but they
also earn the biggest
paydays.
Latona
and his team put on four
solid shows this year
(plus T.R.A.F.F.I.C.
Amsterdam in
2009) that attendees
thoroughly enjoyed. The
problem was not with the
product it was simply
the fact that the
conference pie has been cut
too many ways for
all of the promoters to
keep making a |
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profit
producing them (just last
week the DomainConvergence
conference scheduled to
run this week in Montreal
was also cancelled).
Latona can make money
too many other ways to
keep investing his time
and resources in this
game.
Still,
for show goers a lot of
good things came out of
Latona's one-year
romance with the
conference business. A Vancouver,
Canada show
had been long overdue.
The spectacularly beautiful
city has spawned some of
the industry's biggest
names and Latona's June
event there was as
exceptionally enjoyable
one. He also took the
domain story to two
major European cities; Milan,
Italy and Dublin,
Ireland for the
first time. The
conference explosion has
been great for domainers
as the fierce
competition and wide
variety of new locations
has made it easier and
more affordable for them
attend an event.
However, for the people
who make these
invaluable networking
opportunities possible -
the promoters - it has
become a much bumpier
road to
travel. |
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