Bottle Domains Liquidation
According to The Age and ZDNet, Bottle domains has gone into liquidation. The weird thing is the Bottle domains web site is still working, and existing customers are being asked to transfer to one of Bottle's other companies. Typically when companies liquidate, their assets are supposed to be sold off, in order to pay debts off - one would think a customer base, would be classed as an asset. There is no mention of liquidation on the Bottle domains website and customers are being instructed to transfer their domains to get a better price.
Whether you are thinking of transferring out your domain or staying with Bottle, you need to make sure that you have your domain name password and your registrant email address up to date, at a minimum. If Bottle should close their support, service or website, it is going to be a serious issue for those whose domains and hosting are still there, reminiscent of when RegisterFly went bust. If you read the Age and ZDNet articles, it certainly does not inspire a lot of confidence.
If you need help transferring out your domain and setting up email hosting, web hosting, you can contact us. If you are a current Bottle domain name customer, you will not lose the registration term of your domain names, if you transfer your domain out to another registrar but you may lose any unused portion of your hosting, if you are going to set up new hosting. We offer free DNS hosting and domain name forwarding with all domain name transfers, so you are able to set up domain redirection for your domains. Transferring out your domain name does not affect your website or email services, it is simply an administrative change. Any questions, please email us with your domain name and question, so we can look into it for you.
auDA terminates Bottle Domains Registrar Agreement
On 15th April 2009, Bottle Domains Registrar agreement has been terminated. Passion Computing customer's are unaffected by this decision.
The auDA recommends that Bottle Domains customers initiate a domain name transfer, so that they can update their domain name records and be able to renew their Australian domains. Existing Bottle domain name customers will not be able to renew their domains with Bottle Domains, now that their registrar agreement with the auDA has been terminated. See http://www.auda.org.au/news-archive/auda-15042009/ for full details.
On the 16th April 2009, Bottle Domains won an injunction in the Supreme Court of Victoria, to have its registrar status temporarily reinstated. The Court granted a temporary interim injunction until the Court can hear full argument on Wednesday 22 April 2009. The auDA has applied to the Court this morning (17 April 2009) to seek clarification as to the effect of the Court's orders.and intends to vigorously defend its decision to terminate Bottle Domains' Registrar Agreement.
The dispute is currently in the courts and if you are a Bottle Domains customer you are unable to transfer your domain unless you email the auDA.org.au and have your domain unlocked. Once it is unlocked you can follow the instructions below.
Transferring a domain name
If you wish to transfer your domain name to Passion Computing, you need to follow these instructions. Domain transfers are free and your domain name expiry date remains unchanged.
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Click here to recover your domain name password. An automated email will be sent to the registrant email address and this will contain your domain name password. If you no longer have access to the registrant email address, you need to contact or login to your current registrar and get your email address updated before you initiate the domain name transfer. Please do not skip this step, because some registrars put their own email address as the registrant email address and by using the form to recover your domain name password, it will also tell you the registrant email address for that domain name.
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Once you have your domain name password and access to the registrant email address for your domain name, you can Click here to initiate domain name transfer. You need to fill in your domain name, agree to the terms and conditions and paste your domain name password. Then complete the form. Although there is a button that says 'enter credit card details', after you click on this button, the next screen will say that there is no charge to transfer in an Australian domain name. Fill in the form completely, being careful not to click the back key on your browser. If you have bought a domain from domains.passioncomputng.com.au before, you do not need to fill in yourpersonaldetails again, simply log in with your username and password.
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You will then receive an email confirming your transfer request. The registrant will also receive an email asking them to agree to thedomain name transfer and this automated email will need to be replied to. The system will detect that the authorization email has been repliedand within 48 hours,the domain name will be transferred to us and you will then receive, your username and password. If for some reason, you do not receive an email asking you to confirm your transfer request, then please contact us, so that we can find out why and have the email resent. (Please check your junk mail )
For Instructions on transferring other domains, See Transfer Domains
Coincidentally, Nicholas Bolton owner and CEO of Bottle Domains was also in the news today for selling his voting rights for 4.5 million dollars and is accused of opportunism and unethical behaviour.
http://business.theage.com.au/business/uni-dropout-and-the-airport-project-20090414-a690.html?page=1 . While the response to Nicholas Bolton's move is mixed, it does strike of opportunism when Bolton has insulated himself from having to pay the 77 million dollars by setting up a company that has just $100 paid up capital.
"Mr Bolton has told the Herald in previous interviews that Australian Style Holdings and other companies in his group are insulated against having to make the next $1 per unit instalment payment on the units he holds. The next payment of $77 million lies with Australian Style Investments, a company with just $100 of paid-up capital. That means that even if his company defaults and debt collectors are called in, the rest of his internet domain empire will be protected." Source http://business.smh.com.au/business/bolton-sells-his-briscon-voting-rights-for-45m-20090414-a68o.html
What Bolton did not count on perhaps was the auDA terminating his registrar status today. Perhaps there was no correlation between the decision to terminate Bottle domains registrar agreement and the BrisConnections units but it may have swayed the auDA's decision to prevent a RegisterFly style collapse. To most people, the fact that Bolton is insulated from having to pay the 2 lots of $77 million dollars and brokered a deal to sell his voting rights for 4.5 million goes beyond the line of business opportunism. Did Bolton acquire shares at the discount price of 0.1c per share, deliberately to broker this deal and profit from it? Did he ever intend to pay the 2 lots of $77 million ?
The media is certainly playing Bolton to be the "dark knight" and newspapers may not be publishing all the facts but from face value, it does seem that Bolton acted dishonestly. However, honesty is not a measure of whether or not he broke the law: a dishonest person can still be within the bounds of the law. His involvement in BrisConnections will certainly play itself out in the courts for some time. As far as domain names are concerned, people should make up their own mind as to whether or not they want to support Nicholas Bolton's company.
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