What did Marchex (MCHX) really purchase?

Marchex (ticker: MCHX) announced the completion of its secondary stock offering and the closure of its acquisition of Name Development Ltd. for $164.2 million, comprising $155.2 million in cash and $9 million in stock. But what is Name Development Ltd? Marchex's press release is somewhat unclear:

Concurrent with the close of its offerings, Marchex today completed the acquisition of certain assets of Name Development Ltd., a corporation operating in the direct navigation market, for $164.2 million, including $155.2 million in cash and $9 million in stock.

As part of this transaction, Marchex has acquired a large base of online user traffic, which Marchex estimated at more than 17 million unique visitors per month in November 2004. This traffic is generated from a portfolio of Web properties, or Internet domains, which are generally reflective of commercially-relevant search terms in many of the Internet's most popular vertical commerce categories, and may include geographically-targeted elements. The total number of Internet domains in the portfolio, including Marchex's existing Internet domains, is now more than 200,000.

A clearer explanation:
Marchex purchased Name Development Lts. from Hong Kong based UltSearch. UltSearch buys up expired domain names that have strong incoming links and traffic, and then signs up those domains as search affiliates. Users who arrive at the domain name see a list of search terms; clicking on the search terms results in a page of pay per click ads.

Here's a description of how a Microsoft-owned domain was "scooped" by UltSearch (from CircleID):

When domain names expire they leave skeletons -  networks of inbound links that continue to funnel traffic to that name, even if ownership has changed.  Via eWeek, we learn that Microsoft owned HARDWARE-UPDATE.COM and used the name for a site featuring Windows drivers. The domain name is embedded in various error messages in Windows 2000. However, Microsoft did not renew the domain name and Ultimate Search, a company that specializes in this sort of thing, scooped it up. Now the page provides sponsored links, courtesy of Overture. The article reports that the top sponsored link pays over $3 a click-through.

Marchex reports Q4 results on Thursday. MCHX chart below.