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Thought Convergence Acquires Name Intelligence

May 6th, 2008 by Jay Westerdal

Tc NiAcquisition is a major milestone in Thought Convergence’s strategy of developing a self-sustaining, symbiotic Domain Ecosystem that services the global domain community.

Los Angeles, CA and Seattle, WA, May 6, 2008 — Thought Convergence, the industry-leading provider of domain management, monetization and development tools and technologies for premium domain owners and aggregators of high-quality domain portfolios, announced today that it has completed its acquisition of Name Intelligence, the company behind the highly-acclaimed DomainTools service and the Domain Roundtable conference. The acquisition expands Thought Convergence’s already extensive suite of industry-leading domain tools, services and technologies, and paves the path for management’s vision of a unified Domain Ecosystem.

“We are proud to welcome Jay, Ray and the entire Name Intelligence team into the Thought Convergence family”, said Kevin Vo, Thought Convergence Founder and Chief Executive Officer. “The addition of Name Intelligence further strengthens our industry-leading technology platform and lays the groundwork for the continuing expansion of our comprehensive suite of tools and services for domain professionals. Further commenting on the acquisition, Thought Convergence Director and Chief Operating Officer, Ammar Kubba, added that “Name Intelligence shares our passion and drive to create technology-driven solutions and innovation within the domain industry. By combining our award-winning monetization and development platform, deep industry relationships and extensive resources with Name Intelligence’s unparalleled research, analysis and data aggregation tools, we are putting into place a robust and scalable framework for the creation of a symbiotic Domain Ecosystem.”

In commenting on the close of the transaction, Jay Westerdal, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Name Intelligence, said, “We are incredibly excited to join forces with Thought Convergence and to leverage our core competencies and proprietary technology in order to create the next generation of DomainTools, our auction and marketplace platform, intellectual property protection services, and semantic suggestion technology.” Name Intelligence operations will remain in Seattle, Washington, and will continue to be led by Jay Westerdal and Ray Bero. In addition to their responsibilities at Name Intelligence, both Westerdal and Bero will collaborate with senior management at Thought Convergence to develop and execute on the Company’s long-term strategy.

About Thought Convergence
Founded in 2001, Thought Convergence is an industry-leading service provider of domain information, management, monetization and development tools and technologies for the domain name industry. Widely regarded as a pioneer in the domain industry, Thought Convergence provides its award-winning services and technologies under several brands, including TrafficZ, DomainTools and Idea.NetIdea.Net. By leveraging its comprehensive suite of fully-integrated domain services, tools and technologies, Thought Convergence is pioneering the industry’s first symbiotic Domain Ecosystem and is working to promote the continued evolution, success and sustainability of the domain industry. Thought Convergence is a privately-held company, growing profitably since inception, and headquartered in Los Angeles, California, with offices in Seattle, Washington. For more information, please visit http://www.ThoughtConvergence.com.

Thought Convergence Media Contact:
Ammar Kubba
310.909.7900
PR@ThoughtConvergence.com

Update by Jay: This is the official announcement. However, I thought I would personally comment as well, I know there have been a lot of rumors about this deal and lot of incorrect speculation. I wanted to set the record correct and say, I am extremely proud of the team we are putting together with this deal, the entire Thought Convergence team will number at around 100 strong after the acquisition. We are going to have more resources at our disposal now to focus on bigger projects, the synergies in this deal were awesome. I would not have signed onto the deal unless it allowed DomainTools to better serve the entire Domain Ecosystem. I will be joining the board of Though Convergence and look forward to working with the entire team in both LA and Seattle. The integrity of our DomainTools data is not in jeopardy with this deal and DomainTools website will remain as a trusted third party to everyone regardless of their affiliations.

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Posted in Domain Tools Updates, Name Intelligence, TrafficZ | 42 Comments »

Comments

  1. intersurge Says:

    Congratulations, Jay. The TrafficZ team are good folks to work with.

  2. OptimalNamesDOTcom Says:

    Congrats to all.

  3. julcsanc Says:

    Congratulation to all DT and good luck!

  4. cybertonic Says:

    Congrats to all the actors.

  5. ProDevStudio- Says:

    Congratulations Jay!

    All the best of luck.

  6. nmw Says:

    Congratulations all around!

    :) nmw

  7. dnbidder Says:

    Congrats Jay,

    Since DomainTools has such a very loyal and dedicated fan base how about releasing the sale fig ;)

    UPDATE BY JAY: The amount is undisclosed.

  8. xbase234 Says:

    congrats Jay and TC.

  9. Tiki Says:

    Congratulations to Jay and his new partners! This strategic acquisition will help to ensure a bright future for the domain industry. :-)

    = TiKi =

  10. webmaster24 Says:

    Congratulations, Jay. Your site is one of few I visit everyday.

    Regards,

    Nuno Oliveira
    Webmaster7.comWebmaster7.com

  11. chairmansecretariat Says:

    Congrats, Jay ! Way to go.

    May we know the value of this acquisition ?

    I just put a thread on harmony.comharmony.com about business potential which determines value of particular domain purchases.

    contact@hypersubsonic.com

  12. stevemorsa Says:

    An excellent fit; this is a prescient and wise decision.

    Congratulations and best wishes to all involved.

  13. HBaker Says:

    I think I hear the Imperial March…

  14. sureshbabun Says:

    Congrats, Jay..

    Good Luck Thnaks for ur service

  15. spambait85738 Says:

    Congratulations Jay.

    I also have a question. Will the Domain Tools parking system continue or will that merge into something the other company already has? Or have you not decided that one yet?

    As a one person operation I need parking/monetization solutions for domains until I can get them developed.

  16. RodanMedia Says:

    Congratulations to both of you, and now you can co-sponsor TRAFFIC! :)

  17. michael91806 Says:

    A Fable For Small Principality

    Once upon a time, there was a small principality whose arms man where highly skilled at defending their Prince from all manner of evil doer. So successful where these arms man that Prince was soon able to hire out their services to Princes and Kings of other lands at a hansom profit. In all the realms defended by the Prince’s arms man, the good citizens rejoiced, and gave thanks to their wise Princes and Kings, for their long nightmare was over. Now they were safe from purveyor’s plague and pestilence; no longer were itinerant merchants of questionable repute knocking at their doors at all times of the day and night. The evil doers, who had been deprived of their nefarious enterprises, were unhappy and launched attack after attack upon the Prince’s arms men to no avail.

    One day, the King of one of very largest kingdoms in the land, renowned for the scope and depth of its Library Of All Knowledge, offered the Prince incredible riches if the Prince would join his principality to the kingdom of the Library Of All Knowledge. The Prince accepted the offer and at first things went well because the Prince was allowed to manage his arms men as he had in the past. But this happy state did not continue.

    The King of the Library Of All Knowledge derived much of his income from special messenger services which he provided to anyone, both great and small, who wished to communicate with citizens of other lands. So large was the income which the King derived from these services that the King sometimes ignored his imperil motto of “Primoris Operor Haud Vulnero” and formed alliances with some of questionable character. One day the King decided that the Prince’s arms men were being too vigilant in the discharge of their duties and request that the Prince instruct his arms men to be more sympathetic to others, particularly if their were business associates of the King. The Prince did as his liege lord commanded and soon his arms men were spending more and more of their time speculating as to who was or was not a friend of their new King and not defending their client’s realms.

    Very soon the citizens and rulers of the realms which were clients of the Prince began to notice that they had returned to the Bad Old Days and began to look for a new Prince to protect them. Appeals to the King and Prince were ignored. In fact the King of the kingdom of the Library Of All Knowledge was quite pleased with himself, because his incomes were even higher than before. Obviously he had made a wise decision.

    Moral
    Small but successful Princes should select a new King with care.

  18. michael91806 Says:

    Jay,

    Seriously, good luck and please don’t loose your way. Until two months ago Domain Tools was my second most favored software company, now you have moved up to the number one slot. I am getting much too old to find new favored software companies.

    Any similarity between the previous fable and real corporations is purely intentional. The motto is in Latin and can be translated into English if you know how to search for the correct tool.

    Mike

  19. Nolte- Says:

    “Primoris operis haud vulnerare”
    I will not hurt the original work.

    Haud is actually Ecclesiastical Latin–when they started integrating Greek into the vocabulary. “Non” works just as well if you want to be more “Classical”. Primoris modifies operis so they should be in the same declension (accusative–the direct object). Vulnero should be present progressive (-erare).

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIAdHEwiAy8

    This is all in good humor of course, there’s a Monty Python and the Life of Brian bit about this for you to watch about correcting people’s Latin that should give you a good laugh.

  20. namebuys Says:

    Congrats, Jay and Ammar! Sounds like win/win for everyone.

  21. michael91806 Says:

    To: Nolte-

    By nice about my computer Latin, Star Fleet is still working the bugs out of the Universal Translator. It has only started three interstellar wars and the Klingons aren’t talking to us any longer.

    Try this translator and then play with some of the alternate words. You may get a laugh out of it.

    http://www.translation-guide.com/free_online_translators.php?from=Latin&to=English

    Unfortunately Latin is one of the few languages which the King of the Library Of All Knowledge doesn’t support. The forward and reverse translations were not very good but the above tool was the best and only one I could find. Most of what is out here are Latin translation assistants. Not much market demand when the only potential customer is a 110 acre city-state with a population of 800.

    Mike

  22. chairmansecretariat Says:

    Last time there is whois.scwhois.sc, after that domaintools, now back to whois.scwhois.sc. Is it a reverse takeover ?

  23. mox_eg Says:

    Here you can find tons of great online flash games to play.
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