Helmuts Meskonis Acquires ConsultDomain.de For His Expanding Portfolio of International Domain Name Forums

Serial entrepreneur Helmuts Meskonis, the Founder of No Stress Limited (the UK-based parent company of HostMaria.com and London's Domain Summit conference), expanded his Internet holdings by purchasing long established domain forums DNForum.com and AcornDomains.co.uk last year. A key reason Meskonis wanted the forums was to help promote his rapidly growing Domain Summit that just finished another successful run in August. He obviously likes what he saw in the forum space because he just acquired another one, ConsultDomain.de, once an iconic German online community but one that has been dormant for several years now.

With the explosion of industry blogs, podcasts and news sites in recent years, ConsultDomain lost ground in what became a very tough battle for eyeballs. Still, Meskonis believes he can reinvent the site, a belief that led him to spend most of the past year trying to buy the forum and finally succeeding at an undisclosed price. Helmuts noted, "For those unfamiliar with it, ConsultDomain.de has a storied history, originally launched in the early 2000s. The forum was powered by vBulletin before its closure in 2019, boasting impressive statistics: 68,631 topics, 378,408 posts, and a community of 7,087 users at its peak. Its legacy as one of the oldest domain investing forums in the world cannot be overstated, second only to DNForum, which also debuted in 2001."

Helmuts Meskonis

Helmuts said, "We plan to revive the forum by migrating it from vBulletin to Xenforo, a top-tier forum engine alongside Invision. This transition aims to modernize the platform and enhance functionality and user experience for its community."

Above: A screenshot from ConsultDomain.de 

Helmuts shared some interesting background on what it took to finalize a deal for the forum. "The successful negotiation was significantly aided by industry veteran Frederick "Freddy" Schiwek," Meskonis said. " Freddy's extensive experience, including the recent sale of LuxHosting, Hosting.co.uk and MonsterHost to World Host Group, has made him a valuable ally in my quest. His background in domain management and sales provided essential advice and support throughout the acquisition process."

Above: Helmuts Meskonis (far left) and Freddy Schiwek (3rd from left) on a visit
 to the Certum booth at Cloudfest 2024 last March in Rust, Germany.

To secure funding for the forum's revival, Helmuts frequently traveled over the past year in search of potential advertisers for ConsultDomain, contacting many German and global domain name industry companies. His efforts paid off when he gained financial backing from Andrei Insarov, founder of it.com Domains, who recognized Helmuts' passion for restoring the forum and and its place as a vibrant community for the one of the industry's most important regions.

(Posted Oct. 14, 2024)  

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