Domain name giants join forces

Moniker, a leader in selling and managing domain names, has merged with two other firms specializing in domain name services.

Moniker, the Pompano Beach company that made history selling Internet domain names like Porn.com and WallStreet.com, has been sold to Oversee.net, a Los Angeles online marketing company.

Financial details were not disclosed in the Thursday announcement, but Moniker -- formerly a subsidiary of Seevast -- will continue to be run out of Pompano Beach. Moniker’s founder and chief executive, Monte Cahn, 43, will remain with the company.

Cahn said he has agreed to run Moniker and have a role in executive matters at Oversee for three years.

’’Monte and his team are well known in the industry as thought leaders and customer advocates,’’ said Jeff Kupietzky, executive vice president at Oversee.

Privately held Oversee pulls in about $100 million in revenue in a year, according to Kupietzky, and Moniker is the seventh-largest ICANN-accredited registrar of domains, out of about 600 total, Cahn said.

Moniker’s services include domain name registration, private brokerage services, domain name appraisals, and it hosts live and online domain name auctions.

OTHER BUYS

Founded in 2000, Oversee acquired domain name auction firm SnapNames in June. SnapNames sells domain names that have expired or are about to be deleted. With both Moniker and SnapNames under its belt, Oversee can become a powerhouse in the domain name secondary-ownership market.

In 1999, Moniker brokered the sale of WallStreet.com, which was the first domain name to sell for more than

$1 million. It also was behind the largest all-cash domain transaction in history with Porn.com, which sold for more than $9.5 million.

The most expensive domain name sold was Sex.com, which reportedly went for $12 million in cash and stock during a private sale in January 2005.

Although the Internet domain name business is young, it is projected to be worth close to $2 billion, according to Cahn.

The third quarter of 2007 ended with a total base of 146 million top-level domain name registrations worldwide, growing 31 percent over the same quarter last year, according to an analysis by VeriSign in December.

STREAMLINED MERGER

With the merger, customers of Moniker can now take advantage of domain services at Oversee and SnapNames with the same account.

Kupietzky said the acquisition gives customers the ability to stick with Oversee from the ’’cradle to grave’’ with all the services now offered.

Kupietzky said Oversee wanted to keep the names Moniker and SnapNames because of the brands having a ’’strong connection’’ with current customers, but added that in time, its possible the firms may all be merged under one name.

Cahn said Moniker plans to expand its office in Pompano Beach and will go from 30 employees to 38 in six months.

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