Member Info for Silverblade

We just have to give the new team a bit of time Ezzza - as frustrating as that is considering how long we have been here. Looks likes we have a number of 10 year holders - bakky might win the prize - I’m from TLDH days as well. As Huck says - we have a good core business - but until we stop the car crashes we are not a good investment. I think our board recognised the need for a proper domain professional to take the reigns rather than a sales led focus - which is good - I still think some more board level experience (non exec) would be good for business. SJL being one strong option should he wish to come back! SB

Meanwhile CNIC's market cap hits £220m - a mere 5 times what we are worth - and they have $75m of debt as well. Sobering. SB

Not sure about others Ezzza but I’m just giving the specific events of the last six weeks time to settle in; and to try and forget the more general events of the last six years; and to hope the next six months start to rebuild the companies reputation in the market. I’m pretty much all at sixes....!! SB

SS - I thought it was very interesting that SJL noted afilias were one of the potential purchasers of ICM. With that knowledge alone what on earth were TH and MS thinking about to change them as RSP - and as you say what on earth was the plan. I guess we know the answer - it was being made up as they went along - it was not strategic it was reactionary. I wonder if the best short term outcome is to just let the new team get on with what is probably a serious review of current operations - and let’s all be clear we are not a total disaster - with a bit of expert maintenance, proper strategic leadership, sound financial accounting and continued portfolio growth with proper pricing - we will come out of this a much stronger and more attractive business capable of creating the much sought after shareholder value much referred to but never delivered. SB

I can almost understand TH making the mistakes which are being uncovered - he was never a domain professional in the true sense of that role - but once again you have to ask what was MS thinking here. He was Icaan. He was part of the ntld programme. But we know he left icaan under a cloud - and it is clear he has run our finances in a reckless and verging on fraudulent manner. Poor decision making and a lack of awareness of the bigger picture - they had the assets, the business space, the sales market, the opportunity to be a player - and screwed it up completely. The sooner our new team get a handle on this business and start the clear up the better. Frankly I’m not sure our non execs are up to this either. This all happened on their watch. No challenge, no diligence, no interrogation. Not good enough. Rant over....SB

I would rather we address existing strings rather than spend resources launching a product we apparently don’t even own. Goodness knows what commercial arrangement was negotiated for this by TH and MS. SB

Ezzza / There is a school of thought that Donuts (Abry) are either consolidating prior to an IPO in a couple of years; or that Amazon or Google will ultimately make a play and take full control of all
large scale registry activity in this space. So we have a bit of time / but need get a shift on to benefit from the next phase! SB

It’s not been easy has it Hucks. We’ve had three CEOs in the last 10 years and based on the evidence to date none of them have come away with pass marks - aside from the early vision of Kruger to set up the business in the first place I guess (with guy). What is positive is we are not a complete basket case - quite the opposite - and our peer group are all doing well and making money and being sold - so there is a way through this. We need strong, decisive, experienced and credible people running the business side coupled with proper financial controls and a recognition we are a plc / and with that comes the need to be transparent and trusted or suffer the consequences. Donuts aside - only google and Amazon have more ntlds than mmx - we should see that as a core strength and look to monetise those assets in the way articulated here this week. TF and BD (and probably a permanent CFO in time) have a lot to do / but I am optimistic this time next year we will be a different business. ATB SB

Thanks for being so candid and open with your position and thoughts SJL - I think I can speak for the majority of the board here that your input and counsel is valued and appreciated. As you say - let’s see what the run up to the end of year brings. SB

I guess the only short term option is to commence an in depth review of our revenue in a relatively forensic approach and to start the process of working out where we make money and where we don’t and act accordingly - cutting our cloth as appropriate. You would think this is how we were operated but clearly not. I think you (SJL) are becoming more tempted to play a role here - in whatever capacity suits you - possibly to make up for earlier disappointment or the opportunity ahead!! SB

I seem to remember PIR recently renegotiated the .org contract with afilias - but it was still bringing in $18m pa alone. That’s a beast of a contract. Somehow we need to shape the business to make it attractive to abry/donuts - the money and appetite is there - but we need to clean up our act big time. SB

Interesting stuff SJL.
Afilias only have about 200k registrations in total from their 20 strings, but they do have a large managed registry business providing a lot of back end support. Not easy getting a breakdown n revenue to work out price.
You are not the only one to point out the CNIC irony - quite a few here made that mistake. Even with their debt pile and exposure to advertising they are miles from mmx - shows what a respected management team, clear strategy and no screw ups can do for you.
On the plus side / there ain’t much left to consolidate in the market.....SB

SJL - Any idea what they are paying / assume this is a big deal. Second major purchase by Abry after the donuts deal / who presumably had money burning a hole after the linked ethos deal for PIR failed to get approval. What is so disappointing is they probably never even considered mmx because our reputation is so low in the market. Great for afilias investors - reminds us of the potential here. SB

Agreed SJL - but i think II's must now be conscious that they can no longer trust and accept what they are told - they are investing other peoples money in good faith with an eventual capital return the end goal. There appears to have been a light touch approach to corporate governance and management reporting largely unquestioned. That needs to change. Transparency and communication are key to the future. It has been a bumpy three years since the ICM deal - which was meant to have the opposite effect. I dread to think the state of the business without the financial support it brought. I don't mind another 12 months because the business, investors, clients etc all deserve better than what has occurred here recently. SB

SJL - i hope the appointment of TF is a game changer for the way the company has been run. I also hope our board will buy into the likely plans to re-engineer the business - and i like to think that the approach you are suggesting is the way TF would see things. In the wider background i also hope that the II's - who have continued to show strong support despite some real serious issues impacting on their investment - have made it clear to Guy (and Turcan) change is needed not only in terms of personnel but strategy - and what else can this cover apart from the elements being openly discussed here - domain pricing, 'real' registrations, overheads, role/perception in the industry, credibility. We have seen too many false dawns - lets hope this time we get it right. SB

I think we call them 'commissions'......or use deferred payment deals to entice volume. Look where that got us - bad debts, impairments, false accounting, heaps of freebies and low cost domains. SB

I think this verges into whole issue around the ntld programme itself and the ability to generate long term sustainable income from real and meaningful registrations. In the case of the registrations in our volume domains they mostly appear random generated nonsense and account for large swathes of annual 'drops' (although i am sure there are some decent domains in there - but they get lost).

I think we have domains in various price ranges from $1 to $100. One of questions I asked MS at the investors presentation was about average revenue per domain - the point being how do we increase that rather than just selling more low cost, low renewal domains. Sounds like we agree that should be an area to focus our efforts. The good thing is our core domains are growing - which decent pricing - so management efforts need to support and drive those imo - and be as efficient as we can at the same time. SB

As a non exec Bryan D is paid c$60k pa - same as turcan and elliott - although Elliott may have an increase as he moved into an executive chair position. An extra $13k per month in shares for his interim role seems ok - in a way it’s very supportive and shows his faith in the future business value - and he sees the numbers. The RNS had disher as interim only / TF looked permanent possibly reflecting a change in his previous interim appointment. SB

SJL - might have known you would be aware of what Afilias were up to (appreciate your confidence position) - think they provided registry services to ICM's portfolio - and presumably were a shareholder at some level to have been part of the sale deal. Whilst they no doubt have good reason for selling - seems a bit strange timing given the current share price and doesn't appear like $1m makes much difference to them. Its good business to take them off the market at that price anyway. The only other major shareholder which we never really here about is Hony (apart from dweil) and their 50m holding at 13p purchase. Hurt locker stuff for them alongside quite a few here. Wonder if they are in for the long haul. Probably only leave's about 300m shares (£15m) - in non II hands now if you were looking......!! SB

Does make you wonder at what point the company became aware that Affilias wanted out i.e. was this part of the rational for the original £3m tender offer? Or did they view business as a lost cause. Or a conflict of interest!! SB