Communicate Acquires Y Combinator Startup Auctomatic, Unveils New Business Strategy

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/03/26/communicate-acquires-y-combinator-startup-auctomatic-unveils-new-business-strategy/

by paulsb • 18 years ago

91 39 18 years ago

techcrunch.com

paulsb• 18 years ago

Congrats. Nice to see the brits doing well.

Found a short interview as well: http://venturebeat.com/2008/03/26/communicatecom-buys-e-comm...

collision• 18 years ago

/ Obligatory offence taken at us Irish being lumped in with the British :)

falsestprophet• 18 years ago

Really though paulsb, don't do that.

prakash• 18 years ago

Many congrats guys!!

andr• 18 years ago

kudos!

andreyf• 18 years ago

Congrats :) Slick idea... I remember pg saying he considers EBay ready for a startup competitor, but this seems a better strategy, even though it doesn't solve all problems.

marcus• 18 years ago

True, it doesn't solve all the problems, but taking on EBay one vertical at a time using a great domain for each field might be a very powerful strategy.

EBays greatest moat is the sheer number of sellers and buyers it has, instead of trying to fight the entire EBay network, you take them on one vertical at a time. And maybe later after you've captured enough verticals try to consolidate all the vertical sites into a single property.

Prrometheus2• 18 years ago

I like the new business plan – put shopping sites on great domain names. It isn’t exciting but it sounds profitable.

Congrats on the buyout! I hope you all made a bundle.

apgwoz• 18 years ago

Techcrunch says: "$5 million in cash and stock."

wanorris2• 18 years ago

I apologize if I'm putting a damper on the congratulations, but it sounds exactly backwards: it seems like the reason to start a shopping site in a vertical should be because you have insight or value-add in that vertical, not because you own a domain name.

pchristensen2• 18 years ago

A good domain = lots of free traffic. No marketing, spending on adsense, etc required. It is a very valuable asset.

jamescoops• 18 years ago

big props and well deserved

hooande• 18 years ago

Congrats guys

ideas101• 18 years ago

congrats - another payday for pg & company.

Prrometheus2• 18 years ago

It’s small ($300,000 - $500,000 for YCombinator, pre-tax, I’m estimating), but it’s nice to see that YCombinator is self-funding.

Xichekolas• 18 years ago

Not sure if you are allowed to disclose it, but I was curious what share of the $5 million was cash and what share was stock, and how much (percentage-wise) did the founders themselves end up with?

bosshog• 18 years ago

2 million cash

3 million stock

Not sure about the founder split

gruseom• 18 years ago

I am surprised by the disdain for profitable business in the techcrunch article:

I’m not even sure I’ll remember to check in on them. The domain business is a cash cow but isn’t exactly exciting stuff.

I would have put it the other way around: the business isn't exactly exciting but it's a cash cow. Except I wouldn't say that at all. A profitable online business sounds more exciting to me than 90% of what I've seen on techcrunch.

axod2• 18 years ago

I think domains like these were important in web1.0 era. But who has ever gone to business.com. Who cares about it? It sounds old and boring. I'd be surprised if the number of people going to domains like perfume.com is increasing... If you look at alexa rank over 5 years it seems to have hit it's peak a while ago. Same with business.com.

I think techcrunch was simply meaning the domain business is likely a shrinking market, and not a new and exciting growing market.

Having said that, there's plenty of money to be made. Congrats on the sale :)

pchristensen2• 18 years ago

Goodness no! Internet usage is rising, and since browsers are helpful enough to add "www." and ".com" if you type a word in the address bar, common word domains like perfume.com, candy.com, etc are extremely valuable because people find them on their own. Most people aren't that savvy and they don't know the difference between the search bar, the address bar, or the bajillion toolbars they have installed.

The supply/demand equation you need to look at is: supply of common english words is fixed while internet usage is increasing. People aren't looking for business.com, they think they're searching for business.

sjh• 18 years ago

A quietly profitable domain trading business is apt to be an unreliable source of headlines for TechCrunch.

whacked_new• 18 years ago

I suppose this means the Auctomatics aren't aiming for eBay anymore? Acquisition is nice, but repositioning for domain trade isn't that slick of a score for the hackers.

Harj2• 18 years ago

i should think we'll spend more of our time building than trading

wumi• 18 years ago

so who does the hacking?

byrneseyeview• 18 years ago

Here's a rather poor writeup of communicate.com's stock: http://blog.valueinvestingcongress.com/2008/01/04/a-diamond-...

iamelgringo• 18 years ago

Woot! Congrats, guys.

I had a hunch you'd do well. It's a field ripe for the picking. Ebay has a lot of customers, and their interface leaves a little to be desired, and their API really looks pretty decent. Good job.

utnick• 18 years ago

congrats guys

abstractbill• 18 years ago

Congrats guys, that's awesome news!

brianmckenzie• 18 years ago

Way to go!

SwellJoe• 18 years ago

Gonna miss seeing the guys at events here in the valley, but good for them. I'm surprised it took this long for someone to snap them up.

Harj2• 18 years ago

we'll still be around, we're going to be splitting our time betweeen the valley and vacouver rather than moving there permanently.

we structured the deal in a way that keeps our US visas intact exactly for that purpose.

simianstyle• 18 years ago

I met the founders at eBay live, congratulations on a job well done :)

pius• 18 years ago

Nice exit!

tonyvt2005• 18 years ago

congrats! great idea...

Communicate Acquires Y Combinator Startup Auctomatic, Unveils New Business Strategy

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