Richard Kirkendall and Richard Lau photographed by Kamila Sekiewicz at DOMAINfest 2010

As DNN has learned the buyers of the DomainName.com registrar and customer base sold by DomainConsultant, are non other than Richard Lau of DomainManager.com and Richard Kirkendall of NameCheap.com. The two, also known as “The Richards” partnered up on the purchase and are planning to transform the company into a new brand.

Richard Kirkendall told DNN about the purchase: “We’re excited about the acquisition of DomainName.com and plan to launch a premium registrar geared towards domainers and business. It will operate as separate brand from Namecheap. With all the features: dns, whois privacy, webhosting, SSL at extremely competitive pricing.”

According to information provided by the company NameCheap now has 1,5 million names under management for their clients. DomainManager provides free DNS for over 53,000 domains according to Zone File records.

Namecheap.com, a leading domain name registrar, is hosting its second annual holiday Twitter trivia contest, featuring $20,000 in prizes including domain name credits, Dell Studio 15 laptops, and Barnes & Noble nooks.

“We had a great time with our trivia contest last year and felt our clients and new users did as well so we wanted to bring it back this year and make it a sort of tradition with us,” said Richard Kirkendall, CEO of NameCheap. “Not only does it allow us to give back and say thank you to all of our clients, it also helps us interact directly with them and lets them know we are always here and are real people standing by to help and serve them any time. Overall, it’s just a fun experience for us and hopefully adds to the spirit of the holidays.”

From December 14 until December 24, NameCheap will ask a new question on Twitter on the hour, every hour. So make sure you click here to follow NameCheap on Twitter if you wish to participate. Eight winners – the first to answer correctly and seven other correct respondents chosen at random – will be chosen for every question and be credited $9.69 in their Namecheap accounts (enough for a domain name).

Additionally, the three highest scoring winners will receive Dell Studio 15 laptops ($699 value) and the two runners up (4th and 5th place) as well as one contestant chosen at random will receive Barnes & Noble nooks ($259 value).

To participate in the contest, visit http://namecheap.com/contest. And while you’re at it, make sure to follow DomainNameNews on Twitter as well.

[via Namecheap]

Court documents denying a motion to dismiss(pdf), reveal that hosting company Solid Host, NL is suing domain name registration company NameCheap.com over cybersquatting claims for a domain name registered under the NameCheap whois privacy services WhoisGuard.

Solid Host’s domain name had reportedly been stolen by a “hacker” who used NameCheap’s privacy service.  Namecheap would not initially reveal the owner of the domain name to Solid Host because it believed it was merely in the middle of a two-party dispute.  The court’s ruling clarifies this and rules NameCheap was responsible and liable for contributory cybersquatting. (more…)

Domain name registrar NameCheap.com has decided to add some social media to their marketing mix and also spread some holiday cheer by giving away domains and hosting. From December 1st through December 25th, NameCheap will be giving away $17,000 worth of domain names and hosting packages. The giveaway involves an hourly trivia contest that the company will be holding at Twitter.com.  The hourly trivia contest requires any one wishing to participate sign up for a Twitter account, follow Namecheap and be the first to answer the questions. For more information on the contest check out the Namecheap site.

This seems like a great contest and an easy way to score free domains and hosting. There’s no cost to sign-up at Twitter and follow Namecheap.  While you are at Twitter don’t forget to follow Domain Name News too :)

Press release can be seen after the jump (more…)