Moniker

Industry:	Registrar
Founded:	2002
Founder(s):	Monte Cahn
Ownership:	KeyDrive SA
Headquarters:	20 SW. 27th Avenue, Suite 201 Pompano Beach, FL 30069
Country:	USA
Employees:	KSM Group: 100 +
Website:	moniker.com
Facebook:	[1]
Twitter:	@MonikerSnap
Key People
Bonnie Wittenburg, CEO, John McLaughlin, Chief Operating Officer

Moniker LLC dba Moniker.com is part of KeyDrive SA and its registrar group Key-Systems/ Moniker (KSM-Group). Oversee.net acquired Moniker.com in 2008, and then merged its operations with SnapNames. Moniker was sold to Oversee.net by Seevast Corp. for $24 million USD, which had acquired Moniker in 2005. In January 2012, it was acquired for an undisclosed amount from Oversee.net by KeyDrive SA, which is the parent company of competitive ICANN accredited TOP 10 registrar Key-Systems. This move made Key-Systems the world's sixth largest ICANN accredited registrar. Since February 2014 Bonnie Wittenburg is new CEO of Moniker [2] : "We've gone back to the drawing board, literally. By investing in system upgrades and platform enhancements, we're changing how we do business. Adding product offers, improving support, and developing our communication channels with our users are fundamental components to the changes coming soon. Our passion for domain names and helping you reach your goals, big or small, requires us to provide you with better service at every level - and we're doing just that. We're excited to share our new look with you and hope our new systems will make accessing the domains you want and managing your Web properties easier than ever". "Our goal is to help you make a name for yourself on the Web" says John McLaughlin.

Background

Moniker is known as the first, and arguably only, provider of Domain Asset Management™, a complete set of business services that provide companies a single-point-of-access to help manage and maximize the value of their domains. These services include: name creation, registration, acquisition, portfolio management, appraisal and escrow services, traffic monetization and after-market sales – all backed by unsurpassed customer service and security.

Moniker holds the industry's highest customer retention rate and pioneered the industry’s first domain appraisal formula.

In cooperation with Key-Systems Moniker has extended its offer of TLDs - to about 1000 (including new TLDs).

High Profile Sales

Moniker completed the Industry's first domain sale for over $1 million dollars (wallstreet.com), and the first over $2 million dollars as well (autos.com).

Other notable sales include: Porn.com - $9.5 million, Cameras.com - $1.5 million, Scores.com - $1.2 million, Property.com - $750,000, Freeporn.com - $4 million, Slots.com - $5.5 million, KK.com - $ 2 million, Dating.com - $1.75 million, Photo.com - $1.25 million, Zip.com - $1 million+, Guns.com - $800,000

Monte Cahn, Moniker, and Oversee

History (before joining KeyDrive SA): In 2008, Moniker was purchased by Oversee.net for $35 million USD. It had previously been acquired by Seevast in 2005. Part of the acquisition of Moniker by Oversee stipulated that its Founder and CEO, Monte Cahn, come along as the President of Moniker for 3 years. During this time he also filled other roles within the company, such as President of SnapNames. He left in December, 2010; in May, 20111 he filed a lawsuit against his former employer. He filed suit against Oversee, and named its CEO, Jeff Kupietzky, and its founder, Lawrence Ng; the suit was over alleged non-payment of a $13 million USD incentive plan.

In September, 2011, Mr. Cahn updated his claims of breach of contract and fraud after a judge tossed out his original claim. The new claim now contains specific language on how Oversee.net allegedly affected Moniker's revenue. He now states that the original acquisition was in violation of an agreement between Google and Oversee, and that Oversee improperly deflated Moniker's revenue and performance numbers.