Namemedia going public

IPO offers some insight into the business

[weeks]

NameMedia is going public with a stock offering according to this November 2 announcement.

While not exactly cyber squatting, NameMedia is sitting on a big spread of domain names. The company, which bills itself as an online property developer, buys and sells Web site domain names through BuyDomains.com and Afternic.com. It also develops domains in order to sell advertising space. These include sales lead generators CellularPlans.com and LowRate.com as well as TennisClinics.com, Gardens.com, Photography.com, and other online "communities". Collectively, NameMedia's sites get more than 60 million visitors per month; its portfolio of properties covers 2.3 million domain names (750,000 owned, the rest from third parties). The company derives equal revenue from online ads and the sale of domain names.

Offering Amount: $172,500,000

At that price, that's an average price of $75 per domain name.

Seems like they have some potential to improve. For example, photography.com's "Today's Top Photography Topic"
says, "Cameras are great gifts for dads and grads, but deciding which one is the right one can be tricky. Here are some tips to help you make the best choice. Film or Digital
This debate can get quite lengthy,..."

Ha.

[draggar]

I can name a few domains I wanted to build communities on only to have them get the backorder and just park it with PPC.

[weeks]

Namemedia isn't going to be on anyone's list of "serving mankind via the web." The most kind thing I can say is their current business model is "tacky."

Domain names such as Garden.com and Photography.com deserve to be in more responsible hands. God bless the search engines.