Information company Thomson Reuters announced today that they bought brand protection company and corporate domain registrar Mark Monitor for an undisclosed sum.

“This acquisition marks the beginning of a transformational shift within the Intellectual Property & Science business of Thomson Reuters,” said Chris Kibarian, president, IP & Science, Thomson Reuters. “It is emblematic of our strategy to accelerate innovation and growth within our business.”

“Thomson Reuters already helps thousands of companies create, manage and protect hundreds of billions of dollars worth of intellectual property assets,” said David Brown, president, Intellectual Property Solutions, Thomson Reuters. “With the addition of online brand protection solutions like those provided by MarkMonitor, we’ll be able to deliver advanced technologies to keep customers one step ahead of brandjackers and reduce the enormous risk posed to brands online.”

The MarkMonitor team, led by President and Chief Executive Officer Irfan Salim, will join Thomson Reuters.

Mark Monitor submitted a number of new TLD application on behalf of corporate clients

See the full release after the jump. [via TechCrunch, hat tip to VSDHoldings]

(more…)

Sedo announced today that Bloomberg and Reuters have added IDNX, the industry’s leading domain price index, to the financial markets covered on their respective Web sites.

IDNX provides insight into the current market value of domains, domain industry trends, and the risk-return ratio of domains as a financial asset. Using real estate economic methodology to index more than 200,000 domain transactions since 2006, IDNX exhibits strong correlation with broader economic indicators, substantiating the long-held assumption that domains are as much an economic asset as real estate, stocks or shares.

“It is gratifying to see people realize that domains are a valid investment option,” said Thies Lindenthal, the MIT researcher and economist who created IDNX and serves as Product Manager for Pricing at Sedo.com. “Internet entrepreneurs and domain industry professionals have long recognized fluctuations in domain value that parallel the economy as a whole, but unlike most other markets, these changes were not being tracked. IDNX provides the insight needed to make educated investment decisions. I am thrilled that Wall Street is taking the virtual investment space seriously, and that they are looking to the domain market for insight.”

When compared to other financial indicators such as the NASDAQ or the stock price of internet giant Google, IDNX  shows that the trend lines for these indices follow the same path as the trend line for the domain market. Updated monthly, IDNX has shown consecutive growth over the past five months and reached historical highs in March 2012, indicating a full rebound from 2011’s financial crisis, and suggesting that the remainder of this year could see even stronger figures.

 “This is the first index of ‘virtual real estate’ constructed using the same types of econometric techniques that have been pioneered for tracking prices of ‘real real estate’ and that work well in that context. I think this is a great next step into the new frontier!” said Professor David Geltner, Director of Research at MIT’s Center for Real Estate.

IDNX is currently available on Bloomberg and Reuters under IDNX <Index> and .IDNX, respectively. As with all indices featured on their sites, IDNX can only be viewed by those with valid Bloomberg or Reuters accounts. To view and interact with IDNX now, go to http://sedo.com/idnx

[via Email from Sedo]

Disclaimer: Managing Editor, Frank Michlick, also consults Sedo on their SedoMLS product through his Domain Registrar Consulting business.

As Reuters reports, James Solakian, an investor in Bible.com, Inc. is suing the company’s board members for lack of Profit. Solakian acquired 28 percent of the shares in 2001 as a settlement for a business debt of $400,000. A fight over the control of the company has been ongoing since then, resulting is a suspension of development of the site.

The domain name was originally registered by Roy Spencer “Bud” Miller, an Arizona minister in 1995. Soon after he already found himself turning down offers of $100,00, but Miller refused saying that “he was entrusted to run the site for a sacred purpose”. He then,together with his wife, brought in a marketing company to help them develop the site. They formed Bible.com Inc. and raised money by issuing stock.

Bible.com currently features a crowded mix of advertisements as well as a verse of the day — “Do not follow the crowd in doing wrong” — and offers links for Biblical answers to questions on voting and masturbation.

[via Reuters]

As reported earlier, Avid Media Media Inc. (parent company of sites such as AshleyMadison.com) was planning to go public and use part of the raised funds to purchase Moxy Media. According to an article published by Reuters on Feb 1st, the deal is put on hold for now due to lack of interest from the financial community.

Famous SEO expert Aaron Wall had commented on the IPO with the following words:

click arbitrage meets spouse arbitrage…literally! :D

[via @AnnB03]