Five interesting things regarding the eNom sale
Rightside’s (NASDAQ:NAME) CEO Taryn Naidu and CFO Tracy Knox gave a presentation yesterday regarding the firm’s sale of eNom to Tucows.
Here are some interesting takeaways:
Fresh TLDs are still the smallest part of Rightside’s business. Name.com is the biggest part, followed by aftermarket revenue. Aftermarket includes money the firm makes from its portfolio of 250,000 (mostly .com) domain names as well as parking domains for others.
But the firm still expects fresh TLDs to become its big revenue generator very soon. Rightside still expects fresh TLDs to generate $50 million to $75 million in revenue per year within 3-5 years. That would make fresh TLDs the largest revenue component of its business and have regarding 90% margin.
The firm wants to acquire more top level domains. Two firms – XYZ and Donuts – tried to buy some or all of Rightside’s TLDs last year. Now the tables are turned a bit. Rightside is seeking to acquire other TLDs to add to its portfolio.
It can become an acquirer thanks to its healthy cash position. Rightside paid off all of its debt following selling eNom and looks to still have regarding $100 million in cash (based on end of Q3 balance sheet) following doing so. The firm is considering how to return some of this cash to shareholders and may consider tuck-in acquisitions in addition to acquiring fresh TLDs.
As can be expected, A lot of people lost their jobs as a result of this deal and restructuring. On the conference call, Knox stated 15 people were let go immediately. The presentation discloses that 36 positions will be eliminated as part of a restructuring that will save $3-$5M year.
