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Dark Blue Sea [DBS:AX] and Photon Group [PGA:AX] announced today that several DBS board members have resigned.  The director resignations come from Richard Moore, former CEO and most recently Executive Director, Vernon Wills, Chairman of the Board and Joseph Ganim, Director.  Duncan Cornish has also resigned as DBS Secretary.

Dark Blue Sea [DBS:AX] and Photon Group [PGA:AX] announced today that several DBS board members have resigned.  The director resignations come from Richard Moore, former CEO and most recently Executive Director, Vernon Wills, Chairman of the Board and Joseph Ganim, Director.  Duncan Cornish has also resigned as DBS Secretary.

Photon Group now holds 80.2% interest in shares of  DBS following recent acceptances of the takeover offers. DBS directors had issued a statement confirming their willingness to accept the offer and recommending shareholder acceptance on November 29th.  The takeover offer closes on December 14th.

(c) 2009 DomainNameNews.com

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This morning DomainAdvertising.com, the company that has launched their new services at the Targeted TRAFFIC show in New York, announced that they have appointed Dan Warner as their CEO. Dan Warner was last COO of Dark Blue Sea (ASX:DBS), parent company of Fabulous.com and left that position in April.

This morning DomainAdvertising.com, the company that has launched their new services at the Targeted TRAFFIC show in New York, announced that they have appointed Dan Warner as their CEO. Dan Warner was last COO of Dark Blue Sea (ASX:DBS), parent company of Fabulous.com and left that position in April.

“Dan Warner was the Board’s first choice for this position. He is the perfect leader for DomainAdvertising.com”, said Anoop Polavaram from the Ashmore Group, “His extensive experience and recognized leadership within the domain industry will be invaluable to the business. He is undoubtedly one of the most influential people in the industry.”

“I was looking for a challenge where I could manage growth and innovation in the Internet industry.  This was difficult to find in a market which has recently focused on reducing head counts, research and infrastructure.  Both Directi and Ashmore have a great reputation and substantial resources. When I was approached by them, I realized the potential of this business. I am thrilled about the opportunity,”  said Dan Warner. “We will be doing the exact opposite of most domain companies. Significant capital, human resources and infrastructure will be used to accelerate internet advertising innovation and design. We expect that many of the other players in the industry will look like they are standing still or going backwards in comparison to our scheduled advancements.”

The press release goes on to say:

Warner has already assumed his role as CEO and is planning to fully launch the DomainAdvertising.com business by Jan 2010. Warner leads an initial dedicated team of over 30 people with access to over 500 people as required within the Directi group. Under Warner’s leadership, DomainAdvertising.com will focus on advancements in research, innovation and optimization to benefit professional domain owners.

(c) 2009 DomainNameNews.com

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Domain name registrar Godaddy made three major changes to their Premium Listings service last week.  First, the percentage that Godaddy charges for these listings has been reduced to a flat fee of 30% across the board and secondly, the cap on domain name prices sold on the Premium Listings has been lifted.  Lastly, Godaddy has also lifted the previous ban it had placed on selling adult, gambling and potentially infringing domains.

Domain name registrar Godaddy made three major changes to their Premium Listings service last week.  First, the percentage that Godaddy charges for these listings has been reduced to a flat fee of 30% across the board and secondly, the cap on domain name prices sold on the Premium Listings has been lifted.  Lastly, Godaddy has also lifted the previous ban it had placed on selling adult, gambling and potentially infringing domains.

Previously Godaddy gave users a choice in commissions with the minimum commission of 32% . In theory a seller selecting a higher commission would give the domain more “exposure”.  The Premium Listings also capped the domains that could be sold at $5000 and lower.

Godaddy’s Premium Listings is a simple way for domain owners who have names registered at Godaddy to put their domains in front of the people who are searching for those names.  Names listed with Godaddy’s Premium Listings show up when a user searches for an “exact match” domain name from the home page, in the Premium Domains tab on search results, when a domain search is “spun” and in whois results for the specific domain.

Domain Name Wire pointed out that “every time someone searches for a domain you own, they could get a message that the domain is available for purchase. They can then add it to their cart, checkout, and get the domain instantly.”

Premium Listings is currently reserved only for domains registered with Godaddy but DNN suspects that any success with this program could lead to an expansion which would make it available to domain owners at other registrars. Godaddy has a partnership with Fabulous already which includes Fabulous domains within these “exact match” listings. Buydomains listings also are currently appearing within these same “exact match” searches.

(c) 2009 DomainNameNews.com

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With the announcement of Photon Group’s take-over move, Dark Blue Sea (ASX:DBS), parent company of Fabulous.com and Domain Distribution Network (DDN) has seen it’s share of headline news in the domain space this week.  DBS announced today, in an investors release (PDF), that they have entered in to a new agreement with Godaddy to market the DBS domain portfolio.

No specific details about the new agreement were released in the statement.  DBS and Godaddy started a 5 year agreement in 2008 whereby DBS was able to market their domains through Godaddy’s sales channel.  However, in July DBS announced that Godaddy had terminated their agreement.  No details were given at the time for the reason. The importance of this relationship was made clear in statements from that release when DBS stated that they believe “the impact of this may have a material adverse affect on future revenue and profit.”  The release also noted “The company has it’s own sales channel that, whist it makes a material contribution to overall sales, is one that the company has not aggressively pursued due to our GoDaddy agreement.”

GoDaddy is one of a number of partners with whom Dark Blue Sea makes domain sales, but clearly from previous statements, Godaddy continues to be an integral part of their distribution plans.  The company also recently announced a distribution partnership with Moniker/SnapNames.com and has ongoing relationships with other registrars including Register.com, Tucows/OpenSRS, Network Solutions and Melbourne IT.

[Update] Dark Blue Sea has released more details and information on the contract with GoDaddy.

(c) 2009 DomainNameNews.com

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Dark Blue Sea CEO Gregory Platz has released a statement pertaining to the Photon Group Takeover announcement

Dark Blue Sea CEO Gregory Platz has released a statement pertaining to the Photon Group Takeover announcement

The memo advises :

DBS is reviewing the offer documents prepared by Photon and will provide further advise to shareholders in due course.

DBS Shareholders are advised to take no action in relation to Photon’s proposal.

As expected the company informs shareholders that they will keep them informed and that they should reach out to Platz if they would like more information.

(c) 2009 DomainNameNews.com

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Photon Group Limited,  one of Australia’s largest communications companies representing more than 49 independent specialist businesses, has launched a takeover bid for Dark Blue Sea, the parent company of Fabulous.com.

Photon Group Limited,  one of Australia’s largest communications companies representing more than 49 independent specialist businesses, has launched a takeover bid for Dark Blue Sea, the parent company of Fabulous.com.

Photon, which already owns 30.55% of all DBS company issued shares, is offering 30 cents per share for all of the remaining ordinary shares in Dark Blue Sea (ASX:DBS).

“Photon believes the bid is an extremely attractive offer for DBS shareholders, representing a 56% premium to the average trading price of DBS shares in the last month,” said Tim Hughes, Executive Chairman of Photon Group.

The only condition to Photon’s offer is that it receives a minimum acceptance of 50.1% and that certain prescribed occurences do not occur before the offer takes effect (click here for details). Dark Blue Sea shares rose 57.5% today to 0.315.

[via Photon Group]

UPDATED :
Dark Blue Sea CEO Greg Platz has released a statement at the DBS site.

(c) 2009 DomainNameNews.com

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According to a filing with the Australian Stock Exchange (PDF), Dark Blue Sea (ASX:DBS, the parent company of Fabulous.com and the Domain Distribution Network (DDN), domain registrar GoDaddy has canceled their distribution agreement. This means that as of August 13th, 2009 GoDaddy is no longer listing domains from their own “Fabulous Domains” portfolio and domains from other sellers under this distribution agreement. According to the announcement GoDaddy has not provided a reason of the cancellation of the agreement and DBS is awaiting some additional information from them. In the meantime DBS plans to emphasize their own sales channel in order to avoid an adverse affect on their sales numbers.

According to a filing with the Australian Stock Exchange (PDF), Dark Blue Sea (ASX:DBS, the parent company of Fabulous.com and the Domain Distribution Network (DDN), domain registrar GoDaddy has canceled their distribution agreement. This means that as of August 13th, 2009 GoDaddy is no longer listing domains from their own “Fabulous Domains” portfolio and domains from other sellers under this distribution agreement. According to the announcement GoDaddy has not provided a reason of the cancellation of the agreement and DBS is awaiting some additional information from them. In the meantime DBS plans to emphasize their own sales channel in order to avoid an adverse affect on their sales numbers.

Read the full announcement after the jump.

DARK BLUE SEA LIMITED
ACN 091 509 796
Company Announcement
Date: 17 July, 2009
GoDaddy Domain Sales Agreement Termination

Dark Blue Sea advises late yesterday that it received a notice from GoDaddy that
they will be terminating the “Domain Name Sales Distribution Agreement” effective
13 August 2009.

The company has contacted GoDaddy to seek further information regarding the
notice and is awaiting a response.

Dark Blue Sea will assess the effect of termination going forward, but believes that
the impact of this may have a material adverse affect on future revenue and profit.
GoDaddy is one of a number of partners with whom Dark Blue Sea makes domain
sales. Management is actively seeking to increase sales through existing channels
as well as fast tracking a number of other channels already being pursued. The
company has it’s own sales channel that, whist it makes a material contribution to
overall sales, is one that the company has not aggressively pursued due to our
GoDaddy agreement. Management will immediately change the emphasis on our
own channel.

About Dark Blue Sea

Dark Blue Sea is an online advertising intermediary or “internet traffic” broker
servicing a global customer base from its office in Brisbane. Dark Blue Sea has
developed and successfully manages a number of world-class commercial Internet
properties including:

• Roar and PageSeeker, pay-per-click advertising portals;
• Fabulous, an ICANN accredited domain name registrar and domain name management system;
• Dark Blue, an online advertising affiliate network;
• Domain Distribution Network; and
• Domain Name Portfolio.

Fabulous, Dark Blue and Roar / PageSeeker provide a fully integrated package for
the generation, management and monetization of “internet traffic”. “Internet traffic” is
directly analogous to shopping centre floor traffic.

(c) 2009 DomainNameNews.com

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April 1st is always a day full of fun at DNN.com, but we were disappointed to read elsewhere about news at DomainNameWire which turned out not to be part of an April Fool’s joke.  As per a company press release (PDF), Dark Blue Sea CEO Richard Moore has announced that he will be stepping down as CEO.

April 1st is always a day full of fun at DNN.com, but we were disappointed to read elsewhere about news at DomainNameWire which turned out not to be part of an April Fool’s joke.  As per a company press release (PDF), Dark Blue Sea CEO Richard Moore has announced that he will be stepping down as CEO.

Moore who has been CEO of DBS since 2001 will be stepping down from the position, but plans to stay involved with the company as an executive director on a 1/2 time basis.  His roles will be to focus on corporate strategy and development, investor relations and high level relationship management with major partners, customers and suppliers.

Dark Blue Sea CFO Gregory Platz will be taking over the CEO position effective July 1st, 2009. Platz has worked with the company for 1o years and in fact helped Dean Shannon found the company back in 1999. Moore told us that Platz “knows everything about the (DBS) domain business.”  Moore and the DBS board are very confident in Platz’s abilities to move the company forward.

We wish Richard and Dark Blue Sea the best during this transition.

(c) 2009 DomainNameNews.com

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Not getting anywhere with domain name support ?  Why not enlist the help of your friends and associates on a social media platform and go after the company directly ?

Not getting anywhere with domain name support ?  Why not enlist the help of your friends and associates on a social media platform and go after the company directly ?

Christian Van Der Herst recently had his email address at Gmail.com Godaddy account compromised by a hacker. According to Christian, having access, the hacker was “able to get my emails and retrieve passwords from several account.  I tried to change them as soon as possible, but since they had access to the @maestrosdelweb.com, they were able to trick companies, even calling them on the phone.”  Christian’s site www.maestrosdelweb.com is a web developers community that started in 1997 and has over 5 million unique users a month.

As a  Twitter.com user with over 1600 followers, Christian tweeted (sent) out messages to  his followers and friends who took to “retweeting” his message.  Hundreds of people are pouring in the request in English and Spanish to Godaddy’s Twitter account.  All of them are requesting Godaddy give the domain name back to Christian. See image below for a sample of the requests taken earlier today.

The Retweeted message states :

@GoDaddyGuy i support the user @cvander is the owner of maestrosdelweb.com domain, could you return it to him please!

Godaddy doesn’t appear to have done anything wrong and this likely will be corrected in time, but it provides an interesting example of how Twitter users can gang up like in a lynch mob (call it a Twynch Mob for Twitter) and get something done.  Generally speaking, Twitter users haven’t been so kind to Godaddy. A simple search at Twitter shows a lot of venom toward the company (domainers catch a lot of this venom too).

The power of social media platforms allows for topics to be open for discussion on a massive level and companies can be in the line of fire quickly.  We’ll wait and see how Godaddy handles this and future cases of social media mayhem down the road. Kudos though to Godaddy and other registrars like NSI, Name.com, Fabulous.com and Namecheap.com (among others I’m sure) who put themselves out there and open the communication lines like this.

Here’s an idea. Maybe ICANN should be seeking public responses in a more open place like Twitter . . . Could you imagine ?  

(c) 2009 DomainNameNews.com

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Good news. If you missed the TRAFFIC Down Under conference last year, you now have a chance to catch all of the content online.  Fabulous has put all of the presentations online at the TRAFFIC Down Under site (works best in IE).

Good news. If you missed the TRAFFIC Down Under conference last year, you now have a chance to catch all of the content online.  Fabulous has put all of the presentations online at the TRAFFIC Down Under site (works best in IE).

It’s great to see the content of these presentation available for all, rather than something you have to buy.  Only one other conference I know of, Domain Roundtable, has released free content like this.  Roundtable provided free DVDs from their shows to customers.  Putting these presentations online for free provides a way to bring the messages to the masses and keep the conversation flowing.

Again, nice work Fabulous. Top notch mates !

(c) 2009 DomainNameNews.com

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