Reglikedomain industry desk

Sedo Founders Sell Remaining 24% of Firm, Schumacher Promoted

Sedo Founders Sell Remaining 24% of Firm, Schumacher Promoted

AdLINK has purchased the remaining 24% of Sedo and promoted its managing director.

SedoSedo parent firm AdLINK Group has purchased the outstanding 24.06% of Sedo shares owned by its founders. AdLINK will purchase the shares for 5.5M EUR in cash plus 4.25 million shares of AdLINK. At today’s exchange rates and stock price, and assuming no restrictions on the stock, that values Sedo at regarding $130 million.

Sedo Managing Director Tim Schumacher has also been named as the fresh CEO of AdLINK. AdLINK will also be changing its name, to be finalized in 2010.

AdLINK group had sales of 102.1M EUR in the first half of 2009, a 10.3% drop compared to the same period in 2008. Its earnings fell to 1.4M EUR, a 72% drop from 2008.

Sales in the Sedo division dropped 23.4% year-over-year to 22.6M EUR. Due to a “quality and efficiency” process, the number of domains available on Sedo also dropped in the first half of the year. Still, the number of registered users jumped to 894,000.

Also on the wire

Other reporting from the domain desk.

Earnings, nearly 70% operating margin — Verisign postsServicesEarnings, nearly 70% operating margin — Verisign postsCrowdSignal is PollDaddy’s fresh nameServicesCrowdSignal is PollDaddy’s fresh nameAServicesAfternic Releases Fresh Portfolio Manager for Big Domain SellersCServicesCommunicate.com “frees” its domainReputation matters for email — Why DomainServicesReputation matters for email — Why DomainOServicesOffer could change expired domain names market — Yahoo listingGServicesGet the most out of NamesCon — How to.Services.Net Base Tops 100 Million Domain Names — .Com andGives Neustar 10-year extension on .Us domain — U.S. GovServicesGives Neustar 10-year extension on .Us domain — U.S. Gov