MMX probing accounting of mystery contract
New gTLD registry MMX says it’s looking into whether it incorrectly accounted for about $1 million of revenue last year.
The company told investors Friday that $938,000 of revenue from a single contract was recognized in 2019, but there’s a possibility it should have been classified as “a refundable deposit against future sales or deferred revenue”.
The same goes for $25,000 recognized in the first half of this year.
The contract generated cash of $1.125 million in 2019.
Regular domain sales are usually recognized over the course of the registration and show up on the balance sheet as deferred revenue.
It’s not known which contract MMX is referring to in its notice. I’m tempted to wonder whether it relates to AdultBlock, the defensive registration service available across the company’s four porn-themed gTLDs.
The company had previously reported $1.1 million in revenue (rather than cash) from the sale of 2,000 AdultBlock regs for 2019, which puts it in the right ball-park, but it seems unlikely that so many domains would be blocked under a single contract.
MMX said the worst that could happen is that it would be on the hook for $1 million if it turned out the cash was refundable, adding that it had $7.3 million in the bank at the end of June.
Its share price took a battering anyway, losing almost a fifth of its value on Friday.
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