DomainTools Blog

Here is a Christmas Special! All the assets of ARES are up for auction with NO Reserve. The company was built over the past several years by father and son team Robert and Peter Meyer. It was sold last year to Edgio for $200K and then Edgeio spent another $300K over 2007 developing it further. Due to difficulties raising its next round of financing it was decided to close the company and seek a sale of all assets to a new owner. Edgeio was sold on Friday for $280K to LookSmart in our last auction. The reserve was not met on the ARES assets, so we are now authorized to auction off the ARES assets with a zero dollar reserve. The investors want to liquidate the assets before 2008, so the winner will need to transfer the funds before the close of business on Friday the 28th.

Before being acquired by Edgeio last year, ARES, as it is known, has patiently built up relationships with Brokers and Agents in 70 of the top MLS organizations (multiple listings services) in the US. It has about 1.5m homes listed for sale in the areas it covers. It currently makes about $12,000 a month in revenue.

Product descriptions directional from ARES website:

Web Site Plan	Cost per Month	Hosting Cost	Contract	Additional Cost per Agent Page
Agent Essentials	$30	$0.00	none**	Quantity Discounts Available
Agent Pro	$50	$0.00	none**	Quantity Discounts Available
Agency Essentials	$100 or FREE*	$0.00	none**	$0.00
Agency Pro	$200 or FREE*	$0.00	none**	$0.00

* ARES Agency sites are free if 5 or more agents have an ARES Agent web site
**ARES web sites are billed quarterly

The key advance ARES made is that it automates the inclusion of listings via the IDX protocol used by MLS organizations. This is painstaking work as few MLS organizations share common data structures with others. ARES also provides automated web sites for brokers and agents wanting them.To view a demo of a website they power check out: http://www.joycebenton.com/Just from viewing Name Server stats we can see they have about 1000 domains pointing to them right now. Name Server: NS1.ARESMLS.COM (has 987 domains).

The assets include, all the source code, domain names, and all customer relationships.
Website: Adaptive Real Estate Services
Auction Location: http://www.domaintools.com/ares-auction/

The auction will close on Wednesday at 2 PM PST however it will remain open for an extra 5 minutes if any bid is received in the last 5 minutes. It will finally close when no bids have come in within a 5 minute period and it is after 2PM.

UPDATE:
QUESTION: What are the relationships that they have to get the MLS records? Contacts etc.
ANSWER: We have relationships with our broker clients, who in turn are authorized to access IDX data for any MLS they are members of. These brokers authorize ARES, as a third party vendor, to access the IDX to their benefit. This requires we sign an IDX access agreement for each MLS that specifies the terms of our access, and how the data may be used. Without exception, the access is provided exclusively for the benefit of the broker (and their agents) to provide the web site services. Each broker client (and some agents, depending on the MLS) must sign the IDX access agreement, even if we already have an IDX data feed from that MLS.

QUESTION: How many are actually paying? How many are free.
ANSWER: We have 321 paid accounts, 33 accounts are discounted to no charge due to the number of agent sites at the brokerage, and 25 accounts that are complimentary in consideration of a favor from the broker or agent (EG: strategic relationship or helped us get into a Franchise or MLS).

QUESTION: How much of the $12,000 per month “pre paid” meaning you still owe them service.
ANSWER: Good question – we bill quarterly, so at any given time, the accounts are paid up for 0-90 days. I don’t have an exact amount, but figure an average are paid ahead 45 days.

QUESTION: Is the 12k tied to agreements and what type (12 month, automatically renewable, etc)?
ANSWER: We do not typically have contracts with our clients and the services are month to month, automatically renewable. About 90% of our clients pay with automatic credit card debit, the balance are invoiced.

QUESTION: What contracts or Terms of service do the customers have?
ANSWER: Our TOS is at: http://www.aresmls.com/termsofservice.cfm
Our Billing Agreement is at: http://www.aresmls.com/paymentagreement.cfm

QUESTION: How much does Hosting cost per month?
ANSWER: Our monthly hosting at CrystalTech is approximately $3800.

QUESTION: Will Peter be available for questions?
ANSWER: Yes, Peter can be contacted before or after the auction. He will be assisting the winner take possession of the code and he will explain the system and walk through it.