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13D Filing: Cannell Capital and Rightside Group, Ltd. (NAME)

Published on March 3, 2016 at 12:44 pm by Meena Krishnamsetty in Hedge Funds
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Activist hedge fund manager Carlo Cannell said the following about  Rightside Group (NAME) in the letter attached to this filing:

I am troubled by the pivot toward, and unrelenting propaganda about, new generic top-level domain names (“GTLDs”). Whilst I concede that new GTLDs are one of many opportunities in the emerging market for second generation domain names, Rightside Group, Ltd. (“Rightside”, “NAME”, or our “Company”) is the second-largest domain name registrar, a business that is here and now. I don’t hear Rightside speaking to this strength. Our Company glosses over this critical revenue component and plays up new GTLDs at the expense of the revenue contribution made by the traditional registrar business.
The user interfaces at eNom and Namejet look and feel clumsy and stale. Looking past the main page of NAME’s sites, the logged-in front-end infrastructure is untouched and acts like time capsule to what existed half a decade ago. Most of our growth in names under management is coming from a reseller channel that is out-executing your own in-house registrar eNom.
While I am a believer in new GTLDs, it is going to be many years before their revenue in any way materially approaches the revenue potential of our registrar operations. In my view, NAME’s registrar has become like a crazy aunt kept in the basement, one that you refuse to adequately clothe or feed, but who steadfastly spins straw into gold used to subsidize a stable of largely substandard new GTLDs such as .democrat, .dance, .army, .navy, and .airforce. Most of these new GTLDs are irrelevant and will never be sold in material volumes. NAME is holding back the growth potential of your registrar by pushing garbage extensions to a user base that quietly knows better.
Rightside is a gem in that it has many assets which are unique or difficult to duplicate. Cannell Capital LLC would not have acquired 1,389,953 shares otherwise. We have some good new domain-endings as well, with .news being one example, but this particular domain-ending and a clutch of others like it do not constitute enough of a “front” to gloss over the majority of your extensions which are low in value and should be spun-off. I believe that we should sell or even abandon some of our worst extensions. They should not consume all the resources of our Company at the expense of the assets that are currently profitable.
The current members of the Board of Directors and indeed many of your shareholders don’t seem to recognize this. I do. Today I stand up to be that paladin. To wit, I submit both a plan and a request: (i) Unify all Company products under the eNom.com brand; (ii) Terminate no less than 20% of your weaker staff; (iii) Move the Name.com entity to Seattle under the eNom.com brand and close expensive ancillary offices; (iv) Rebuild and relaunch the front-end infrastructure at eNom.com to bring it to the current standard expected by consumers; (v) Refinance all debt; and (vi) Add two new board members with a suggestion, but not a requirement that two incumbents resign.
I would prefer to avoid waging an expensive proxy battle to elect my own slate of directors. Such a fight would be costly to both myself and our Company. It is my sincere hope that substantive discussions between myself and the current Board of Directors could result in the infusion of fresh blood without such a fight.
You can find the details of this filing below:

Ownership Summary Table

Name Sole Voting Power Shared Voting Power Sole Dispositive Power Shared Dispositive Power Aggregate Amount Owned Power Percent of Class
J. Carlo Cannell 1,389,953 0 1,389,953 0 1,389,953 7.32%

Follow Carlo Cannell's Cannell Capital

Page 1 of 8 SEC Filing



SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION



Washington, D.C. 20549



SCHEDULE 13D



Under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934



(Amendment No. )

Rightside Group, Ltd.

(Name of Issuer)

Common Stock, par value $0.0001 per share

(Title of Class of Securities)

76658B100

(CUSIP Number)

J. Carlo Cannell

Cannell Capital LLC

245 Meriwether Circle

Alta, WY

83414

(307) 733-2284

(Name, Address and Telephone Number of Person

to Receive Notices and Communications)

February 19, 2016

(Date of Event Which Requires Filing of This Statement)

If the filing person has previously filed a statement on Schedule 13G to report the acquisition that is
the subject of this Schedule 13D, and is filing this schedule because of §§240.13d-1(e), 240.13d-1(f)
or 240.13d-1(g), check the following box. ☑

Note.

Schedules filed in paper format shall include a signed original and
five copies of the schedule, including all exhibits. See §240.13d-7
for other parties to whom copies are to be sent.

(Continued on following pages)

(Page 1 of 8 Pages)

______________________

* The remainder of this cover page shall be filled out for a reporting person’s
initial filing on this form with respect to the subject class of securities, and
for any subsequent amendment containing information which would alter disclosures
provided in a prior cover page.

The information required on the remainder of this cover page shall not be deemed
to be “filed” for the purpose of Section 18 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934
(“Act”) or otherwise subject to the liabilities of that section of the Act
but shall be subject to all other provisions of the Act (however, see the Notes).

Potential persons who are to respond to the collection of information contained
in this form are not required to respond unless the form displays a current
valid OMB control number.

Follow Rightside Group Ltd. (NASDAQ:NAME)
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