Top Level Share Discussion Threads

[count chris] 04/2/2014 22:21

If you go on iPlayer and watch this mornings world business report it contains the interview fang fang referred to above

[ftangftang] 04/2/2014 10:02

some recent relevant info for anyone new to TLDH
cheers
ft ft

TLDH Announces Raising $34m, Board Changes And gTLD Update




TLDH logoTop Level Domain Holdings, the applicant for the fourth largest number of gTLDs (92) for both itself and clients, has announced it has conditionally raised £21 million (approximately US$33.6 million) from institutional and other investors to develop its services and contest gTLD auctions. In addition it announced Tucows' Elliot Noss has joined the board, replacing Guy Elliott, and given an update on the status of all of its applications.



In the gTLD update, TLDH currently has interests in 24 uncontested gTLD applications, which it is progressing to operational launch through its wholly-owned registry services business, Minds + Machines Limited. It is also developing its global network of registrars through which names in the new domains can be sold to the public.

For more information on the above and other issues, see the TLDH announcement below:

Placing to raise £21 million; Board Changes

Highlights

£21 million (approximately US$33.6 million) conditionally raised from institutional and other investors
Cash balances on completion in excess of approximately US$48 million with an additional US$15 million available to compete in a single private auction
Elliot Noss, President and CEO of Tucows, Inc (NASDAQ:TCX) to join Board as a non-executive director
Company to be re-named Minds + Machines Limited to reflect transition to a full operating business

Placing

The Board of Top Level Domain Holdings Limited, is delighted to announce that the Company has today conditionally placed 175,000,000 new ordinary shares (the "Ordinary Shares") through N+1 Singer as broker to the Company at a placing price of 12p per Ordinary Share (the "Placing Price") with institutional and other investors to raise £21 million before expenses (equivalent to approximately US$33.6 million at current exchange rates) subject to admission (the "Placing").

The Company intends to use the Placing proceeds to continue developing its registry and registrar operations, Minds + Machines LLC and Minds + Machines Registrar Limited, as well as to provide additional funding for participation in the relevant private auction rounds for the 43 contested generic top-level domain ("gTLD") applications in which TLDH has an interest. The Company believes private auctions provide a significant opportunity for the Company both to increase the number of high-value gTLDs within its portfolio and to generate cash from those gTLDs which it chooses to relinquish. Under the private auction process, the winning bid is divided equally and paid to the losing applicants net of the auctioneer's fees.

The new Ordinary Shares being issued pursuant to the Placing will, on issue, rank pari passu with the existing Ordinary Shares in issue and application will be made for the new Ordinary Shares to be admitted to trading on AIM. Trading in the new Ordinary Shares on AIM is expected to commence on or around 5 February 2014.

Status of Operations and Available Cash

TLDH was the fourth largest new gTLD programme applicant after Donuts, Inc., Google, Inc., and Amazon, Inc. having submitted 92 new gTLD applications on behalf of itself and its clients in 2012. TLDH has subsequently established itself as one of the major participants in the Internet governing body's new gTLD programme and currently has interests in 24 uncontested gTLD applications, which it is progressing to operational launch through its wholly-owned registry services business, Minds + Machines Limited. TLDH is also developing its global network of registrars through which names in the new domains can be sold to the public. The Company is further extending its sales channel reach through the recent launch of its wholly-owned registrar business, Minds + Machines Registrar Limited, and priority reservation service, OPENdb. Launched in November 2013, the industry and consumer interest in priority reservations continues to be strong.

TLDH also has a further 43 wholly-owned new gTLD applications which are in contention with one or more applicants for the following strings:
.app .art .baby .beauty
.blog .book .cloud .coupon
.cpa .cricket .data .dds
.deals .design .dog .eco
.fashion .flowers .garden .gay
.green .home .hotel .immo
.inc .latino .law .llc
.love .pizza .property .realestate
.restaurant .school .site .soccer
.store .style .tech .video
.vip .wedding .yoga

As indicated above, the Company intends to use the Placing proceeds to provide additional funding for participation in the relevant private auction rounds for the contested generic top-level domain ("gTLD") applications in which TLDH has an interest.

On completion of the Placing, the Company's cash balances will increase to in excess of US$48 million (approximately £30 million). In addition, as previously announced, the Company also has a funding facility in place for up to US$15 million (equivalent to approximately £9.4 million) to support its participation in a single prospective auction for one contested gTLD. The Directors therefore believe the Company is now very well positioned to participate fully in the auctions and maximise the value of the contested gTLD applications in which the Company is interested.

In addition, the Company has an interest in a further 10 contested applications listed below, seven of which are third party client applications and three of which are joint venture applications with the Federation Internationale de Basketball (.basketball), the International Rugby Board (.yogarugby) and Tucows, Inc. (.yogagroup).
.basketball .broadway .casino
.group .music .poker
.radio .rugby .tickets
.tube

Board Changes

As part of the Company's impending transition from an investment company to a full operating business, the Board is also delighted to announce that, subject to the satisfactory completion of standard regulatory checks in compliance with the AIM Rules, Mr Elliot Noss has agreed to join the Board of TLDH as a non-executive director. Mr Noss is President and CEO of Tucows, Inc, one of the largest domain registrars.

Mr Guy Elliott will at the same time step down from the Board. Mr Elliott was a founding director of the Company and has played a key role in the development of the Company's portfolio of gTLD investments.

Fred Krueger, Chairman of TLDH, commented:
On behalf of the Board I would like to personally thank Guy for his wise counsel and support over the years and we wish him well on his other projects. We are likewise delighted that Elliot Noss has accepted our invitation to join the Board as a non-executive director at this key time in our development. Elliot is a highly regarded and respected individual within the domain industry and we welcome the additional commercial and operational perspectives he can bring as we continue to build our registry and registrar operations and commence the commercial launch our gTLDs. We are also exceptionally pleased by the level of interest from institutions to the placing which has exceeded our expectations.

Proposed Change of Name, Transition to an Operating Business and Re-Admission

The Company is now fully focused on commercialising its gTLD assets through its registry, registrar and registry service provider operations. As a result, the Board intends to implement fully a number of changes to the way in which TLDH is managed which will have the effect of changing the status of the Company from an investing company under the AIM Rules to an operating company with a material trading activity. As part of this transition, the Directors intend to change the name of the Company to Minds + Machines Limited, the same name as the Company's 100 per cent. owned subsidiaries, operating in Ireland and the United Kingdom. The Directors believe the change of name will benefit stakeholder communications and branding significantly.

The change to an operating company with a material trading activity would be classified as reverse takeover of the Company under the AIM Rules and therefore would be conditional, inter alia, upon the approval of Shareholders at the Meeting of Shareholders. The Company is at an advanced stage of preparation of a circular to shareholders and a further announcement is expected to be made during February.
Total Voting Rights

Following the issue of the new Ordinary Shares, the Company's issued share capital will consist of 825,558,522 Ordinary Shares, with voting rights. This figure may be used by shareholders in the Company as the denominator for the calculation by which they will determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change to their interest in, the share capital of the Company under the Financial Conduct Authority's Disclosure and Transparency Rules.

The above TLDH announcement was sourced from:
www.tldh.org/2014/01/placing-to-raise-21-million-board-changes/

[johnma] 04/2/2014 09:46

Poor Pi s who sell for small profits

[ftangftang] 04/2/2014 09:05

JAF
on the BBC NEWS channel
just seen an interview with the ICAAN vice president
it will no doubt be repeated on the next businesses slot

cheers
ft ft

[jaf1969] 04/2/2014 08:19

Some guy from netnames discussing the new domains on chris evans bbc radio 2.

[johnma] 04/2/2014 08:05

Great time to be topping up - these will be way north of 25p within the next few months - too much activity in the area to stop this train....

[kwizza] 03/2/2014 17:50

DotShabaka top-level internet domain goes live

[johnma] 03/2/2014 10:01

First placing at 6p - this time Singer had a very strong take up for the placing at 12p Company and Broker very Bullesh, they recognise the importance of having enough chips at the table ahead of the Auction. Will be a very interesting 24months

[ftangftang] 03/2/2014 09:01

mega
don't trouble yourself with this company
takes a bit of time and effort to understand the huge potential here
it is not for you
cheers
ft ft

[nickg2] 03/2/2014 08:09

Nice start to the day!

[ftangftang] 03/2/2014 00:42

Tiddler to watch
Top Level Domain Holdings jumped 15.7 per cent to 14¾p after raising £21 million before expenses by selling new shares at 12p each through N+1 Singer, its broker. The company plans to use the cash to bid for as many as 43 new generic internet domains, including .gay, .yoga and .pizza.

just a one liner ....
plenty more to come over the next days/weeks
imo
cheers
ft ft

[master rsi] 03/2/2014 00:11

Can anyone post link for article that was in Times re tiddler to watch please.

You need to be a subscriber so no they can't post a link but they could copy and paste a small portion of the article without infringing copyright

[johnma] 01/2/2014 04:48

Top Level Domain Holdings raises $33m from investorsBy Robert Cookson in LondonAn Aim-quoted company which is competing against Google and Amazon for control of new web suffixes such as ".app" and ".cloud" has raised $33m from investors to increase its bidding power in private auctions.Top Level Domain Holdings will announce on Friday that it has completed a capital raising that brings its cash balance to $48m in the run-up to auctions of some of the most coveted new domains.MoreTLDH makes its play in the name gameBut this pales in comparison to Google's $53bn and Amazon's $3.8bn in net cash as of September's end."It's a poker game – and you want to have enough chips on the table to be able to win some hands, lose some hands, and come out with the best outcome," said Antony Van Couvering, chief executive.The Dublin-based company is one of many seeking to capitalise on internet regulations that will result in the number of "generic top-level domains" such as ".com" expanding from a few dozen to more than 1,000.TLDH has already taken control of several uncontested domains, including ".horse", ".casa" and ".cooking". It is also working with London on the suffix ".london", which is due to go live this summer.But TLDH has also applied for more than 40 domains that are contested by others, including deep-pocketed technology groups such as Google and Amazon, as well as internet registry specialists such as Donuts.Contested domains are to be allocated by means of auctions.These are typically structured so that all participants are rewarded: highest bidder takes ownership of the domain, while losing participants split the winning bid equally between themselves.In the first private auction last year, six domains sold for a total of $9m. To date, auctions have tended to involve domains related to niche areas – such as ".red" or ".photography".Mr Van Couvering says prices are likely to rise significantly in the coming year as bidding begins on the most coveted and potentially lucrative names such as ".blog"."We'd be surprised to see any of the domains go for less than $1m," he said. "Many will go for $5m-$10m and some will go for much more."TLDH said it was working with a wealthy individual who has promised to provide as much as $15m to support its bid in a prospective auction for one domain, which it did not name.The company, with a market capitalisation of about £80m, is to announce on Friday that it will change its name to Minds+Machines Limited.

[woodpeckers] 31/1/2014 19:05

No, here's the link tinkle

[tinklepop] 31/1/2014 19:01

How does one access that Liquid? Is it subscription?

[liquid millionaire] 31/1/2014 17:13

Take a look at POST 6468 over on the chartists thread [FXD] for where TLDH are going. And it ain't down!

[tinklepop] 31/1/2014 17:02

Thanks Mail2. Mine said 12.50 and is finally showing the final trade going through at 15.14.

[mail2] 31/1/2014 16:53

14.75p 14,25/15.25

[tinklepop] 31/1/2014 16:40

What did we close at? My screen is showing some peculiar numbers??

[spiritfinder] 31/1/2014 16:37

Should be a hard push upwards on the Share Price next week and as we move towards the multiple auctions, the next one set for 18th Feb.

[tinklepop] 31/1/2014 16:35

Fascinating post above Johnma from Singer.