The popular project management software provider Huddle.net has dropped down $131,400 USD in an expired domain name auction at NameJet.com to purchase the matching .com domain name to their current .net domain name, Huddle.com .
According to whois records, Dave Huddle was the past owner from at least 2001 and like from the time the domain was first registered in June of 1996 prior to the domain name reaching expired status on June 13, 2010. The domain name was not renewed and went to an expired domain name auction at NameJet who partners with registrar Network Solutions where the domain name was registered. With 229 bidders in the 3 day auction, the Huddle.com auction ended July 22, 2010 with the winning bidder "BND" beating out "Newyorker".
The payment and transfer of the Huddle.com domain name took place on July 30, 2010 to an Andy McLoughlin with an email address @ Huddle.net
Huddle.com currently forwards to Huddle.net
According to DomainTools.com historic thumbnails, the domain name Huddle.com was for sale in at least 2007-2008. Showing a black webpage with simple white text at the top:
"Welcome To Huddle.com
This domain name can be purchased, but will not be cheap. Serious parties should send an email to dave AT webforge DOT com"
That email address also happened to be used in whois for Huddle.com prior to expiring and was the likely reason the domain name expired in the first place. Emails sent to that email address bounced! I even dug further and found another email address for Dave and that one also bounced!
Not getting domain name renewal notices from Network Solutions about the upcoming expire date can easily lead into a domain name expiring. Network Solutions does offer an Auto-Renew feature but by default, it is turned off. One would need to turn it on and secondly have up to date credit card information in the account to auto renew it. Auto renew is often used but credit cards also expired every couple of years! If this data isn’t updated and domain renewal notifications go unanswered the domain name expires and is listed on NameJet.com in the Pre-Release section and sold at public auction.
I think this also spotlights that "end users" are bidding in some expired domain name auctions.
Huddle.net did get a $10.2 Million investment that was announced on their site in May 2010, so this could be a very similar case to the Foursquare.com domain upgrade that I covered when they upgraded their domain in September 2009 from PlayFoursquare.com after a $1.35 Million investment.
Congrats to Huddle.net in making a wise choice of protecting the brand they have developed on their .net domain and the upgrade to the .com!
Huddle.net is a Ninian Solutions Ltd company and is based in the UK.
Leonard Britt
And we thought end users didn’t watch Namejet auctions
Nice research!
Terrell
I believe the reason we are seeing more end users in auctions is because Network Solutions shows a link to the auction on the domain’s expired page – right along side with a button for the original owner to renew.
Jamie Zoch
@Terrell,
That very likely can be the case. They would still need to visit the domain directly during that time to see it.
Kitvy
Nice move Huddle.
Terrell
I’ve seen more end users (colleagues in the marketing world) who keep track of the expiration dates of domains they are interested in, often with an Outlook calendar reminder or similar.
When the name expires, they may not know where it goes to auction but they will still visit the domain to “see if it’s still there” at which point they see the auction link.
Michael
What I don’t understand about these types of sales is that for it to get that high, there had to be at least two people bidding to that level. I get Huddle.net being willing to pay that much, but who the heck else would be? Smells like some shill bidding to me.
Jamie Zoch
@Michael,
That is always a valid question with what happened at SnapNames but I don’t think this was the case here. $131K is like peanuts to many, including a lot of those “New Yorkers”. Hard to say the reason behind the bid but I don’t think this was a shill bidder going against Huddle.net, just a deep pocket bidder who wanted the domain and likely were caught up in the bidding.