Member Info for Silverblade

....here they come. All 40k of them! Sales are looking good though - lots of solid performers. SB

Got to agree with Norrab on this one (although I would note that mmx in recent years have reduced overheads from the previous excesses which hopefully demonstrates the commitment to a lower cost base - appreciate others will have a view on this....). I have always said - despite the differing views we all hold based on our opinions on the previous, current or future management team; investment horizons; goals and expectations - that we all share a common wish for the company to do well - preferably in the short term but certainly in the medium term. We all share the same risk profile on our current investment; albeit the timing of share purchases will affect how well we individually fare in future share price performance - and the level of any dividend income will relate to how much of our well earned we are prepared to invest. I hope all investors are ultimately rewarded for their faith in the business. SB

There is likely to be some bed and isa activity in those trades - coming up to financial year end - hence the tight spreads. SB

Sunday - I suspect part of the problem here is that Radix appear to be a privately-owned concern – and as such we cannot see the current valuation placed by the ‘market’ on the business against which we could benchmark mmx. They are also not subject to the same level of detail in relation to financial reporting – so we don’t see details on overhead, cost of sales – and therefore no EBITDA, PBT, shareholder dividends etc. That comment on lack of competitor performance goes for most registries; with any true market valuation only becoming evidenced due to takeover, consolidation etc.

What is interesting about the Radix is the volume of domains in their portfolio – more than twice mmx – yet similar revenue (billings?). So the revenue we deliver per domain is higher; which is likely to increase as the full effect of the ICM portfolio occurs in 2019 together with the .work renewals at a higher price than the low cost original sale price amongst others. I think this continues to support the high quality nature of our portfolio. SB

Although we are posting good daily, weekly sales - our renewals are being weighed down by the epic registrations. If you remove .work from the picture (which is likely faring better than I think we gave it credit for), there are about 60K deletes coming up - almost 40K of those are epic registrations. Once they are cleared out in the next couple of months management will have a clear picture on the revenue being accrued from portfolio renewals. The clear guidance that billings income is substantially ahead of last year (incl the ICM contribution) together with cash in the bank in excess of $9m (after all of the shareholder loan has been repaid), strong sales, high renewals (with the exception of epic) allows the company to indicate the 'increased flexibility' that affords the company - my take is this relates to the future dividend policy. Nice to see the share price going in the preferred direction for a change.....SB

I think SJL indicated he had put in an order for 500K shares - not sure if that was still pending an approval that he was no longer considerd an 'insider'. The 200K shares purchase at 6.2p on Friday was mine. SB

If only I had tried to pick up some more last week eh......hindsight!! That said - I still believe the current price represents great value - so am happy enough to pay what I did. Glad your friend got a good deal. Another good day for registrations. SB

Although the sales under 6p are classed as buys - I suspect they are actually sells. I put in a buy order and it went through at 6.2p. Good week so far - lets hope it carries on in the short to medium term. SB

I was suggesting - tongue in cheek - he had registered his blockchain account using a .luxe domain! Stranger things have happened.....imagine the PR opportunity for our new marketing guru with that one! SB

Bakky - the lad that started facebook.......SB

Interesting .luxe registration today.......zuckerberg.luxe.......you don't think maybe, possibly!! Anyway another decent day on overall registrations - incl .luxe. SB

Results are being posted earlier than usual. Great update - and our cash position indicates that we received good auction income from .gay. This is the type of update I would have structured if I had share options coming up and I wanted to try and shift the share price.....and as we have said for some time we needed evidence that the hard work in the previous 12 months would start to deliver and this RNS provides evidence we are making great progress. SB

Posters may be interested in the following - lifted from domainwire posting talking about tlds.......from someone who is major operator in this sector. SB

" There were ZERO New TLD’s registered 5 years ago and now there are 26 million. That’s ahead of the estimates I heard openly discussed pre application reveal-day. I estimate in 5 years there will be 50 million

Uni is going to sell in the vicinity of 10 million dollars in new TLD extensions without freebies or discounts this year. More new registrations keep coming on.

New TLD’s keep getting adopted by mainstream companies and entities as marketing tools/vehicles and seen in the wild in advertising and media (just like .com in the late 90’s)

There will be a “round two” of New TLDs – and several people who openly talked down New TLDs have privately approached me about applying for and running their own strings. There will be hundreds of new applications from individuals and perhaps 600-1000 from brands once the window to apply reopens (depending on the terms and criteria ICANN stipulates for round 2+). If Icann keeps the window open (as I think they should) then an industry will form coaching and coaxing all brands to get their own TLD.

New TLDs are selling on the secondary market. You can see public examples at the Namescon auction. Even if a name sells for $500 in a namescon auction that’s $500 less getting invested in. .com/net org or CCtlds

I think at the end of the day, everyone who runs a TLD quietly hoped their string would be a breakout extension with millions of registrations like .com. That there would be a groundswell of uptake that would elevate their extension into the mainstream — and if there is disappointment it relates to the fact that it didn’t happen that way. There were too many strings, competing for a curious but stunned audience and the distribution network of registrars 4-5 years ago simply wasn’t up to the challenge of delivering these products at scale. It was too much work for a distribution network that wasn’t;t ready and wasn’t sure.

That said, today we have a multimillion dollar cashflow stream that essentially cost us nothing — and now that the spotlight has gone out and the euphoria died off, these extensions live, they keep getting registered and the pile of “paid registrations” (not the freebies) keeps growing like a little engine that could.

Time is on the side of all New TLDs and each year makes them stronger. When I started domaining you wanted the .com and needed the .net to cover it. Today the .net has been marginalized by a new TLD version of the .com in 10 years the New TLD will further marginalize the .com. As a domainer I’m investing in .com names, registries of new tad’s and specific new TLD names at the top of the top.

To write TLDs off as a failure when they have been anything-but is like being a climate change denier. You’re right in your mind until you die of old age and get proven wrong in the end because the reality is

Taproot – you certainly opened an interesting debate over the weekend – nothing wrong with that – and it brought up a number of interesting viewpoints from SS and YHAL in particular – and that’s the thing about investing in shares – investment decisions vary and therefore we each have our own perspective on why we are invested whilst sharing a common outcome in terms of future share performance or income stream objectives.

I have said before that I feel your frustration and that of others. I’m no different – no investor likes to see the value of their investment crater. The decisions taken by the current management team were necessary to address the issues we now know to have been beneath the waterline and impacting on company performance – reliance on china, reliance on premium one off sales, ambitious and onerous failed sales targets, short term revenue decline, reduced auction income, high overheads etc. You must concur that the business is in a much stronger position than it was - and those decisions were taken by the current team. Why that is not yet reflected in the company valuation remains a source of ongoing frustration, anger, disillusionment by those that had faith in this company. The management team have done a good job in addressing historic problems; and yes they cannot hide from the criticism on share price valuations – but to say they are just salary motivated is not accurate given the share options available to senior members of the team.

I believe we need to be patient and let the company show that the actions which were taken in the previous 12 months accrue to an improved bottom line. That takes time – and H1 2019 results will be an important gauge in that process. Before that – we will see the full year results in 6-8 weeks’ time. Whilst we know the rough financial performance; the company needs to recognise current shareholder unrest and seek to provide clarity on its plans for the next 12 months – incl current trading, dividend timetable, updated cash balance (which would allow some estimation on any .gay income), future strategy, data on revenue per domain etc. The management team must justify their current strategy to maintain a relatively high overhead structure; or strip back costs. The reality is we are a simple cash generating business – and as such will be attractive once the model is proven.

And for what it’s worth – if SJL remains a supporter bearing in mind the paper losses in his mmx shares account are measured in millions of $$ (and our II’s – none of whom have sold) – than that helps me bide my time for a while yet. SB

We seem to have three distinct groups now posting here. Those that are prepared to support the current senior management team and give them time to prove that the events and decisions that have taken place principally over the last 12 months have resulted in a stronger and more profitable business – accepting that as time progresses there is an increasing urgency to understand bottom line performance and a clear financial strategy to create an attractive company for investors; those that see a viable business but no longer have confidence in the current team to effectively monetise the assets operated by the company and create shareholder value; and finally those that are here with a negative agenda seeking to criticise shareholders and management alike often based on personal history and with the benefit of hindsight. I remain in the first group and believe this year will see the rewards of the company’s strategy start to appear.

Most investors are suffering losses on our investment in the company – and that’s the one thing we all have in common. Let’s not forget the review occurred last year because there were knocks on our door; and those initial enquiries resulted in a course of action most of us did not see coming – but that should not cloud our support as indeed it has not in the eyes of our major shareholders. SB

bakky - I think you are being a bit pessimistic. The figures to 31 Dec 2018 will show turnover of c.$16m, EBITDA of c.$4m - and an overall accounting loss of c.$11/12m due to writedowns. Those figures only effectively include H2 contribution from ICM domains. You are correct that we rely on strong renewals - but the indications for renewals are they are higher in year two than year one - so some of .vip has been de-risked as long as that trend continues. So looking into the current trading year to 31 Dec 2019 - even if we stay still - our revenue should be in the $19/$20m ball park - and with an overall target to get all costs below $12m (all covered by renewal income within 18 months as of last year) - our EBITDA should be c.$7m (Sunday reckons we could even improve on this). SB

We don't need the loan - it was more than likely working capital to see us through the ICM acquisition - and it has a relatively high level of interest - so for me it should be paid off asap. Some of the .cpa proceeds were used for that very same purpose. The company's EBITDA should be used to service any future dividend payment. Possible update on dividend strategy with full year results in early May; with the potential for an inaugural divi to be announced at H1 interims in Sept and a payment in Oct/Nov - by then the company will be pretty clear on its full year performance. AIMO SB

Thanks SS - sensible course of action from you and the response from Toby makes sense as to what can and cannot be reported. It does at least confirm it was a private auction - the figures from Icann sponsored auctions are reported. I'm still hopeful we did ok out of this - not sure we would have been in a position to push the boat out and use up all (maybe more) of our remaining cash to buy .gay - or anything else for that matter until we move out of the current negative cycle. SB

SS - I have tempered my expectations.......I had previously felt we were capable of generating up to 1cent per share of earnings - with a total annual dividend payout of 40% of that - interim and final. I think we may be closer to 0.7 cents per share for this year - but would be delighted to be wrong on the upside. Still that would allow a reasonable pay-out whilst retaining a growing cash balance. SB

We know from the trading statement that .cpa went to private auction; we also know it was purchased as a defensive play by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants who do not intend to roll out the domain at present. 5 applicants withdrew from .cpa and shared the private auction income – and based on what we were told in the trading statement – mmx received c. $1m – taking our cash and equivalents up to $11.4m – less $3m shareholder loan liability and c.$3.2m of restricted cash (covering Letters of Credit to ICANN and a $1m vendor lock up payable in 2021) – leaves us with c.$5m pure ‘cash’.

It would appear that .gay was resolved via a similar private auction with a 3 way split – quantum still to be ascertained – but if .cpa was purchased as a defensive play for $5m (?) then surely .gay would have generated a decent value as a future domain for various uses. In operational terms mmx should return $6/7m minimum in 2019 EDITDA – we are in a good place - financially speaking. At least that’s what I keep telling myself….. SB