Sedo is brokering Internet Real Estate Group’s Chocolate.com and the web business. The site is a marketplace for fine chocolates that lists 250 vendors and their over 5,000 products.

“The Chocolate.com domain name and address is one of the most sought after plots of virtual real estate on the Internet,” said Andrew Miller, Managing Director of Chocolate.com. “It is the global equivalent of the best address on Madison Avenue, Rodeo Drive, or Champs-Élysées.”

“When a rare, internationally-appealing name like Chocolate.com is put up for sale, it has the power to shift an entire market,” said Kathy Nielsen, Director of Strategic Alliances at Sedo. “With record-breaking domain sales under our belt and a strong network of potential buyers, we’re optimistic that Chocolate.com will be a landmark sale and are excited to help make it happen.”

The name and website has been listed before for $6MM USD and then lowered to $4.95MM USD. Sedo has not published an asking price and the domain has yet to actually be listed in the marketplace.

[via Press Release]

Disclaimer: DNN’s co-founder and managing editor, Frank Michlick, consults SedoMLS through his company DomainCocoon.

This week, 945 transactions took place on Sedo’s marketplace and via SedoMLS, totaling $1.48 million. Over 39% of total sales were the result of Buy Now listings.

Highlights of public sales include:

• Top .com: ulink.com at 20,000 USD
• Top ccTLD: matik.ch at 11,000 EUR
• Top “other” TLD: traspaso.net at 4,000 EUR

See the full list of reported sales after the jump.

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Domain Marketplace Sedo launched a new version of their German homepage today. According to an email sent at launch the focus of the redesign was the domain buyer:

• Easy access to domain search and search results
• The focus on buyers means that the homepage tries to answer the most frequently asked questions from buyers.
• The display of Showcase, Top domains and Domain sales has been updated.

[via Consultdomain (German)]

Disclaimer: DNN’s co-founder and managing editor, Frank Michlick, consults Sedo through his company DomainCocoon.

This week, 900 transactions took place on Sedo’s marketplace and via SedoMLS, totaling over $1.52 million.

Over 42% of total sales were the result of Buy Now listings.

Highlights of public sales include:

• Top .com: endgame.com at 80,000 USD
• Top ccTLD: k1.de at 12,000 EUR
• Top “other” TLD: stromrechner.net at 9,100 EUR

See the full list of reported Sedo sales over the last week after the jump.

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This week Sedo announced 948 transactions took place on Sedo’s marketplace and via SedoMLS, totaling just under $1.6 million. Over 40% of total sales were the result of Buy Now listings.

Highlights of public sales include:

• Top .com: gamepedia.com at 15,000 EUR
• Top ccTLD: jobcentre.co.uk at 27,500 USD
• Top “other” TLD: good.net at 26,500 USD

See all of the reported sales after the jump.

(more…)

It’s not a major news story, but Sedo has finally decided to include the offer price in emails they send to domain owners . In the past, when Sedo emailed a domain owner about an offer that has been received, they did not send the offer price.  The email simply stated :

“We are pleased to inform you that a potential buyer has made an offer for your domain, yourdomain.com
Please respond to this offer either by clicking on the following link or by going to “Offers received” in your Sedo account:  (LINK TO SEDO GOES HERE)
Please note, that you will receive reminder mails about this offer, until you respond.  You will need to submit at least one counter before you can cancel the negotiations.  This process was designed to ensure a communicative and successful market place.
Please note that the Seller assumes all responsibility for the listing of this domain name. These responsibilities include, but are not limited to, any obligations that arise from accepting an agreement to sell the domain name.

Best Regards,
Your Sedo Team

We noticed today that Sedo has finally changed the email to include the price.  The first sentence now reads

We are pleased to inform you that a potential buyer has made an offer of 60 USD for your domain

A Sedo spokesperson told DNN:

We recently launched this small improvement to our notification emails to domain sellers when they receive an offer or counter-offer on a domain name. These updates mean that sellers see the amount of the offer directly in the email. This was added at the request of many of our sellers, in an effort to make it easier to review and respond to bids.

It’s a simple change and one that any domain owner who values their time will likely appreciate.  Godaddy Buyer Services please take note !   Sedo has still not responded to the complaints about lowball ($60) offers coming in from Godaddy, but at least they made this minor adjustment.  It’s been a long time coming.

Disclaimer: Co-founder and managing editor of DNN, Frank Michlick, also consults Sedo through his company DomainCocoon.

Remaining Sedo Founders To Leave After 12 Years

After Sedo (FRA:SDO)’s CEO and co-founder, Tim Schumacher, left earlier this year, the company today announced changes to its executive team including the planned departure of three co-founders and the company’s chief sales officer.

The transitions will take place during the first quarter of 2013, when Founders Ulrich Priesner, Marius Würzner and Ulrich Essmann along with Chief Sales Officer Liesbeth Mack-de Boer depart the company for the next steps in their careers.  Stepping up from within Sedo’s ranks, Dirk Ochotzki will now serve as Head of Operations, Joel Ghebaly as Head of Product Management (Traffic Monetization), and Simonetta Batteiger as Head of Product Management (Trading).

I would like to thank the departing founders and management members for the last 12 years, in which Sedo has matured from a fast growing start-up to the world’s largest domain marketplace with more than 140 employees serving our global customer base,” comments Tobias Flaitz, CEO of the Sedo Holding AG. “With changing market requirements and increasing competition, Sedo enters the next stage in its growth with changes at the management level that will let the company continue to cater to today’s client expectations.”

With the next generation of leadership anchored by CEO Tobias Flaitz, Sedo continues to set the industry benchmark into its second decade by bringing to market innovative domain solutions that help companies and entrepreneurs capitalize on their online real estate potential, such as recently launching a suite of services to help launch promote and grow new gTLDs.

“By the nature of the domain business, Sedo has always been an evolving organization, and embracing change is part of the company’s DNA,” comments Ulrich Essmann, Co-founder and President of Sedo.com, LLC. “Today we are very proud to pass on management responsibility to longtime team members who will enable Sedo to capitalize on its tremendous growth opportunity and bright future.”

[via Press Release]

Disclaimer: DNN’s co-founder and managing Editor, Frank Michlick, is consulting Sedo through his company, DomainCocoon.

Sedo Weekly Sales Report up to October 29th, 2012

This week, 892 transactions took place on Sedo’s marketplace and via SedoMLS, totaling nearly $2.3 million.

Over 38% of total sales were the result of Buy Now listings. Highlights of public sales include:

• Top .com: calcio.com at 50,000 EUR
• Top ccTLD: webhosting.co.uk at 500,000 USD
• Top “other” TLD: manufacturedhomes.net at 14,000 USD

This week’s top sale, webhosting.co.uk, is also the second-highest reported .co.uk sale on the secondary domain market. Congratulations to Sedo broker Dave Evanson for closing this great sale.

Related articles

• WebHosting.co.uk Sells for Half a Million USD

Sedo’s monthly Greatdomains auction ends in about four hours at noon EDT today on October 25th, 2012. See the current bids below. Click here to bid on any of the names.

And here are the winners of the 2012 Targeted T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Awards as they were announced at a Brunch during the Targeted T.R.A.F.F.I.C. show this morning:

Best new monetizing Solution

• DomainPower.com

Best overall Domain Solution

• Sedo.com

Best Domain Blog

• DomainSherpa.com (Cyger)

The “we get it” award

• SalesForce.com

Developer of the year award

• Alan Dunn (DomainHoldings)

Broker of the year

• Dave Evanson (Sedo.com)

Sponsor of the year

• Escrow.com

Domainer of the year

• Frank Schilling

Domain Hall of Fame

• Chad Folkenning
• Michael ‘Mike’ Mann

Plus the Bandit Berkens “Goodwill Ambassador Award”, which went to Judi and Michael Berkens.

See the videos of parts of the awards ceremony over at DomainGang’s Youtube channel and see the original nominees here.