Hands up who wants to go to DOMAINfest Global 2012 in Santa Monica? OK, if you are one of those with your hands up, or even hovering, the annual DOMAINfest Global event will be held from 31 January to 2 February, 2012 once again at the luxurious Fairmont Miramar Hotel in Santa Monica, California. For more information, check out the news release below: DomainSponsor Announces 2012 Date For DOMAINfest Global Conference The largest and most respected conference designed specifically for domain name investors and online publishers returns to Santa Monica DomainSponsor®, the domain name monetization unit of Oversee.net® and organizer of the critically acclaimed DOMAINfest® series of conferences, has announced it will host its annual DOMAINfest Global® event from January 31 to February 2, 2012, at the luxurious Fairmont Miramar Hotel in Santa Monica, Calif. As in past years, the entire Fairmont Miramar Hotel has been reserved exclusively for DOMAINfest Global in order to provide attendees with an intimate, distraction-free environment that maximizes networking opportunities. Speakers, Agenda and Evening Entertainment Domain investors, publishers and online marketers attending DOMAINfest Global can once again expect an agenda filled with highly relevant learning and networking opportunities. Expert speakers and panelists will offer insights and tips that can immediately improve business performance and results. First-class evening dinner parties promise to provide unique, fun backdrops for the formation of long-lasting business partnerships and friendships. Highlights from the February 2011 conference included a standing-room-only keynote address from legendary Go Daddy CEO Bob Parsons, plus an entertaining fireside chat with Ben Mezrich, author of The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook. More than 700 domain name investors, online marketing professionals, and service providers from 30 countries attended the conference. Registration Opens September 1 An early bird registration fee of $995, which includes all sessions, meals and official evening parties, will apply from September 1 through September 30. From October 1 through December 31 the standard discounted rate will be $1,195 per attendee. Beginning on January 1, the regular pre-conference rate of $1,295 will apply. DOMAINfest has arranged for discounted hotel room rates at the Fairmont Miramar hotel.  For reservation details, please visit: domainfest.com/hotel . Sponsorship Opportunities Available A record number of 37 sponsors and exhibitors successfully promoted their brands to the event’s high profile audience in February 2011.  Information about 2012 sponsorship and exhibitor opportunities is available at domainfest.com/sponsorship-options . Inquiries can be sent to sales@domainfest.com. New York Meet-Up For the first time ever, DOMAINfest is hosting a New York meet-up event on August 23 from 7:00-10:00 p.m. US Eastern time at the Mad46 Rooftop Lounge, on the 19th floor of the Roosevelt Hotel at Madison Avenue and 46th Street. Attendees will enjoy speed networking, dinner and cocktails. Registration is $150 and is available online: www.domainfest.com/NewYork2011/register . About DOMAINfest Founded and hosted by DomainSponsor®, the direct navigation traffic monetization division of Oversee.net, DOMAINfest® is a conference series that brings domain industry and Internet professionals together to learn, network, and do business. Attendees include online advertising experts, domain publishers, domain monetization experts, SEO and SEM specialists, website developers, online marketers, ad or affiliate network suppliers, search advertising providers, venture capitalists, bankers and trademark/legal advisors. For more information, visit www.domainfest.com . About Oversee.net Oversee.net® is a leader in Internet performance advertising. Its businesses are driven by a robust technology platform that processes over 40 million revenue events a month. With a portfolio of more than one million domain names, Oversee’s Domain Business is a top pay-per-click advertising network, delivering highly targeted ads to 300 million unique users worldwide per month. Vertical Markets, Oversee’s rapidly growing lead generation business, utilizes highly scalable SEO, SEM and CMS tools to attract customers to the company’s own travel, shopping, and financial services web sites, providing end users with the information they need to make smart purchase decisions. Headquartered in Los Angeles, Oversee has offices in Portland, Ore., Pompano Beach, Fla., New York City and Frankfurt, Germany.

Web.com, a provider of internet services and online marketing for small and medium‐sized businesses (SMBs), has agreed to acquire the privately‐held Network Solutions, one of the largest domain name registrars focused on SMBs. The takeover means Web.com has the opportunity to create the largest online marketing solutions company focused on the $19 billion web services market for SMBs. Currently the two companies have approximately three million paying subscribers more than nine million domains under management and more than 1,900 employees worldwide. The acquisition follows last month’s private equity buyout of Go Daddy, the world’s largest registrar. “Shares of Web.com rose nearly 30 per cent after hours following the announcement of its largest acquisition to date,” reported Reuters. “The company had a market capitalisation of $251.72 million at Wednesday’s close.” Under the terms of the agreement, upon the closing Web.com will pay Network Solutions $405 million in cash and issue 18 million shares of Web.com common stock, in addition to refinancing existing net debt of Network Solutions and paying certain fees. Network Solutions is currently majority owned by General Atlantic LLC, a leading global growth equity firm. “This transaction represents a unique opportunity to dramatically expand our scale, add further momentum to Web.com’s already improving top line growth, and further expand our market share as the nationally recognised go‐to provider of online marketing solutions specifically tailored to small and medium‐sized businesses,” said David Brown, Chairman and CEO of Web.com. “Our integration strategy will be similar to our successful acquisition of Register.com, and we will be in a strong position to crosssell and up‐sell our services to Network Solutions’ approximately two million retail customers and hundreds of thousands of wholesale customers. We believe this combination will provide significant long‐term shareholder value as we grow our business, capitalise on synergies, improve our margins and generate substantial cash flow to invest greater resources in growth and branding initiatives.” “The acquisition of Network Solutions immediately delivers enormous scale to Web.com and better enables us to capitalise on the significant shift from traditional marketing channels to online marketing as mass adoption by SMB’s continues. Small and mid‐sized businesses are increasingly looking to leverage the growing adoption of online local search, social media and mobile devices to grow, and they need cost‐and time‐efficient help. No other company has the combination of products, services and experience to help small and medium businesses as effectively as Web.com. Our combined organisation will have far greater resources to market our end‐to‐end suite of solutions, in addition to using the power of a national brand for the first time in our history,” Mr. Brown continued. Anton Levy, a Managing Director of global growth equity firm General Atlantic, the principal stakeholder in Network Solutions, said, “As growth investors, we are very excited to participate alongside other Web.com stockholders in its exciting strategy to be the web services and online marketing resource for SMBs. With this transaction, Web.com wins the race to scale, which is critically important at this moment in the shift to online marketing by small and medium‐sized businesses.” Tim Kelly, CEO of Network Solutions, stated, “Network Solutions has been a pioneer in this industry for nearly 30 years. We are very excited to combine our expertise, resources, customers and award winning customer service with Web.com. Our combined company will have tremendous know‐how and a broad portfolio of online marketing, web services, social media and mobile solutions to help small businesses grow in the increasingly connected online world. For Network Solutions and Web.com, we will be positioned to capitalise on the more than $19 billion online services market for small and medium businesses in ways that neither company could do efficiently on a standalone basis.” The transaction, which is subject to Web.com shareholder approval as well as customary regulatory approvals and closing conditions, is expected to be completed in the fall of 2011. At the close, General Atlantic and other current Network Solutions shareholders are expected to own approximately 37% of Web.com. In addition, as part of the acquisition agreement, Mr. Levy will join the Web.com board of directors. The transaction will create a leading end‐to‐end online solutions company with a clear path to $500 million in non‐GAAP revenues as it focuses on providing web services to SMBs, a market estimated to be larger than $19 billion. Web.com believes its combined company will be positioned to deliver non‐GAAP revenue growth in the low teens, with non‐GAAP earnings per share and unlevered free cash flow growth in the mid‐teens to 20 percent range over the next three to four years as revenue and cost synergies are realised. In particular, under current debt pricing terms, the transaction is expected to be at least 20 percent accretive to the $1.22 per share current First Call consensus estimate for 2012, with significantly greater accretion in 2013.

Go Daddy’s CEO Bob Parsons posted a video of him killing an elephant. Now his rivals are trying to poach his customers. By Geoff Williams, contributing writer April 14, 2011: 3:29 PM ET NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Small web hosting firms are trying to poach customers from industry leader Go Daddy, which continues to suffer fallout after its CEO posted a video showing him kill an African elephant .

Small web hosting firms are trying to poach customers from industry leader Go Daddy, which continues to suffer fallout after its CEO posted a video showing him kill an African elephant. A number of companies have recently launched campaigns to snare customers — with HostPapa being the latest — and some have seen a boost in their revenues because of it

A screenshot of Save the Elephants website (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — The controversy following Go Daddy CEO Bob Parsons killing an elephant in Zimbabwe has prompted web hosting providers to offer promotions focused on outrage over the elephant shooting video , a report by coupon code tracking website CouponFollow released early this week found. In the week ending April 8, 2011, web host HostPapa is cashing in on the controversy offering a $5 donation to Save the Elephants for every GoDaddy customer who transfers

A small selection from a long list of unqualified domains to which SSL certificates have been issued (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — In a report issued this week, online watchdog group the Electronic Frontier Foundation said that  certificate authorities are issuing SSL certificates for unqualified domains in large numbers, a practice that the report’s author Chris Palmer says could impact the integrity of the whole SSL system, and puts Internet users at increased risk of attack. Certificate authorities, says Palmer, are only supposed to issue certificates for public names – that is, for fully-qualified domains that reference a specific machine.

A small selection from a long list of unqualified domains to which SSL certificates have been issued (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — In a report issued this week, online watchdog group the Electronic Frontier Foundation said that  certificate authorities are issuing SSL certificates for unqualified domains in large numbers, a practice that the report’s author Chris Palmer says could impact the integrity of the whole SSL system, and puts Internet users at increased risk of attack. Certificate authorities, says Palmer, are only supposed to issue certificates for public names – that is, for fully-qualified domains that reference a specific machine. Palmer’s research into data in the EFF’s “SSL Observatory” uncovered large numbers of certificates signed by CAs for domains typically used as internal-network shorthand, such as “mail,” “wiki,” or “intranet.” “In the Observatory we have discovered many examples of CA-signed certificates unqualified domain names,” he writes.