I'm surprised no one posted it yet, but Marchex reported dismal earnings yesterday after the close:

http://seattle.bizjournals.com/seatt...html?ana=yfcpc

http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/090219/20090219006036.html?.v=1

Their stock is getting hammered today:

http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=MCHX

One can listen to the archived conference calls at:

http://biz.yahoo.com/cc/0/101250.html

It was coming..
Downhill non-stop from here on...
It's just a matter of time before Google also takes it in the nuts.

If they pushed for competitive tenders for the dot-com contract (along with other big domain name holders such as NameMedia/BuyDomains, Fabulous, etc.), they would have cost savings that go straight to the bottom line. If dot-coms cost $2/yr per domain instead of $7/yr, they would save $500,000/yr for every 100K domains they own (and some of these guys own several hundred thousand domains).

Originally posted by GeorgeK
If they pushed for competitive tenders for the dot-com contract (along with other big domain name holders such as NameMedia/BuyDomains, Fabulous, etc.), they would have cost savings that go straight to the bottom line. If dot-coms cost $2/yr per domain instead of $7/yr, they would save $500,000/yr for every 100K domains they own (and some of these guys own several hundred thousand domains).

Perfect idea George !

Originally posted by GeorgeK
If they pushed for competitive tenders for the dot-com contract (along with other big domain name holders such as NameMedia/BuyDomains, Fabulous, etc.), they would have cost savings that go straight to the bottom line. If dot-coms cost $2/yr per domain instead of $7/yr, they would save $500,000/yr for every 100K domains they own (and some of these guys own several hundred thousand domains).

The only way this is going to happen is :
if they hire somebody with a 7 figure annual salary (plus perks eg: company limo, stock options, Private jet , free massages etc etc ) to come and tell them about this wonderful idea...

Let me look at my schedule.

I haven't seen anything in the articles as to what the $176million impairment charge actually relates to, is this writing down the value of overpriced acquisitions or something like that?

I see today, livecurrent/communicate's share price was hammered, down 35%.

They moved in tandem..
mchx ended
3.95 -1.08 (-21.47%)

I love the upgrade from "Strong sell " to "sell, 2 downgrades today a little to late...

UPGRADES & DOWNGRADES HISTORY
Date Research Firm Action From To
20-Feb-09 Thomas Weisel Downgrade Overweight to Market Weight
20-Feb-09 JMP Securities Downgrade Mkt Outperform to Mkt Perform
19-Dec-08 Canaccord Adams Initiated Hold
21-Nov-08 Matrix Research Upgrade Strong Sell to Sell
30-Jun-08 Stanford Research Downgrade Hold to Sell

Originally posted by Domo Sapiens
I love the upgrade from "Strong sell " to "sell,

Originally posted by GeorgeK
If they pushed for competitive tenders for the dot-com contract (along with other big domain name holders such as NameMedia/BuyDomains, Fabulous, etc.), they would have cost savings that go straight to the bottom line. If dot-coms cost $2/yr per domain instead of $7/yr, they would save $500,000/yr for every 100K domains they own (and some of these guys own several hundred thousand domains).

Why should domain holder receive this benefit?

George I'm sure you'll agree the system has given us all a gift of a hell of a lot of rent by mis-pricing generic domains in most tlds.

Originally posted by gwideas
Why should domain holder receive this benefit?

Because domain registrants are the consumers, and competition passes on the benefits to consumers.

Originally posted by GeorgeK
Because domain registrants are the consumers, and competition passes on the benefits to consumers.

Exactly!

Originally posted by GeorgeK
If they pushed for competitive tenders for the dot-com contract (along with other big domain name holders such as NameMedia/BuyDomains, Fabulous, etc.), they would have cost savings that go straight to the bottom line. If dot-coms cost $2/yr per domain instead of $7/yr, they would save $500,000/yr for every 100K domains they own (and some of these guys own several hundred thousand domains).

That can't be good for the long term viability of the Internet.

Why not?