Welcome! This is Domain Movers, a unique series by DotWeekly that has long focused on corporate domain name transactions and report the early findings to you. These are early signs of new brands, products, services, advertising, investing and more.
It is always “nice” to know the prices paid on these domain names but many times it’s simply not publicly available. I do put in efforts to find an offering price or sales price but what can you do if you don’t see it! In general, its fair to say that most of these are minimum four figure deals. Most are likely five figures or higher though.
This article is brought to you by our fine friends at DomainTools.com, who provide me the domain research tools needed to dig deep into domain names. Huge list today as I was busy yesterday and didn’t get to post. Here we go:
Clean.com, which according to whois records has been owned by The Procter & Gamble Company since at least 2003 (oldest whois record) and registered since 1995, was used for at least a little while as a P&G product display and then a redirect by the company until about July 2008 when name servers were set to SedoParking. Interestingly, the domain name has remained at SedoParking since that time, some 9 years. AS of 4/27/2017, domain name now redirects to Tide.com.
To note, I did not see a listing on Sedo for Clean.com, which isn’t required to “park” domains but that would be an indicator it was listed. There is potential that whatever parking revenue the domain name has earned over the past 9 years, may have not even went to P&G, if they didn’t have the domain listed in an account at Sedo.
Either way, I think this is a big mismanagement of a great asset and over those 9 years could have been used by the company in a better fashion than it was.
Microsoft Corporation has sold the domain name Noox.com according to whois records. The domain names name servers changed to SalePage.com, which is owned by Domaining.com founder Francois Carrillo.
Dugout Ltd. which is based in the UK has acquired the premium generic domain name Dugout.com to help with its efforts and services. The domain appears to have sold in September 2016 but I had just noticed it now.
oBaby.com (all letters) has been acquired by a currently unknown NetNames client. NetNames is now owned by CSC Corporate Domains but NetNames clients are mainly in the UK. OhBaby.com to note is owned by a domain investor. There is a company behind oBaby.co.uk who would be potential buyers of the .com, but it doesn’t appear they are current NetNames clients as obaby.co.uk is registered with 123-Reg Limited.
PepsiCo has acquired the domain name gActive.com from BuyDomains. The domain is listed under Stokely _ Van Camp, Inc. currently in whois records but holds a PepsiCo email address.
VegasBaby.com has been acquired by a currently unknown SafeNames client. The domain name held a $67,000 purchase price and had some movement in whois records prior to going under privacy at SafeNames. The domain was owned by Frank Schilling’s Name Administration Inc.
Verizon Trademark Services LLC has taken ownership of FiosPlus.com from its past owner P.D.R Solutions FZC. The domain was registered in 2008.
ProWebinar.com has transferred into MarkMonitor under generic whois data. The domain was listed for sale using the Uniregistry system and registered in 2015. ProWebinar.net was registered on April 17, 2017 also at MarkMonitor.
PeoplePro.com has been acquired by a currently unknown MarkMonitor client. The domain was registered at GoDaddy prior and owned by JD Clark Enterprises, Inc. To note, Mercer US Inc., who is a MarkMonitor client, recently announced Mercer PeoplePro, so they would be a potential buyer.
Fly.com was sold by Travelzoo for $2.89 million, as stated in this SEC filing on page 6/7 listed Cash flows from operating activites “Discontinued operations gain on sale of Fly.com domain name” 2,890. That 2,890 converts by adding 3 zeros to: $2,890,000.00
Listed in the same SEC filing and page, under: Cash flows from investing activities: Proceeds from sale of Fly.com domain name: 2,890
Travelzoo purchased the Fly.com domain name in 2009 for $1,760,000 cash via domain name aftermarket service Sedo, which resulted in many years of use for the company and an asset that was later sold for $1,130,000 profit. Great domain names are true assets in many ways and this further proves it.
General Motors LLC registered NewDomainRequest.com adding to the 4,700 other domain names they own.
AgilityServices.com has been acquired by a currently unknown CSC Corporate Domains client. The domain has been registered since 2005 and was owned by BuyDomains prior.
GeneralMarket.com has been also acquired by a currently unknown CSC Corporate Domains client. This one was owned by GoDaddy’s NameFind portfolio.
MountainGroup.com has been acquired by a currently unknown NetNames client. The domain name held a $25,000 offering price and has been registered since 2014. It appears this transaction took place around March 2015. The domain was owned by YummyNames prior to dropping in 2014.
EssentialFoods.com has been acquired out of the NameFind portfolio by EssentialFoods.dk in a nice domain name upgrade.
OvationCare Incorporated of Aurora, CO has acquired its EMD in OvationCare.com at domain name aftermarket service Sedo.
Airbnb, Inc. has acquired Airwork.com at Afternic and likely paid a fair amount for it. The domain was owned by Garry Chernoff of Netincome Ventures Inc. prior. There are several companies using the term and Garry is well known for some big domain deals being closed.
Firefly.com has very likely been sold by Microsoft Corporation. The domain has transferred out of brand protection service MarkMonitor to GoDaddy under privacy protection. That’s the second domain sold by them in this article and follows on the heals of them selling Jellyfish.com. There seems to be a trend starting here from Microsoft.
Wildlife Capture Services has acquired NetGun.com to go with its matching products they offer, Net Gun. Pretty cool products they offer, which shoot out a net to capture animals or whatever one would like to propel a net at to capture.
Google Inc. registered HotCell.net and currently doesn’t appear to own the .com
Any idea who bought Fly.com?
@Charley,
I’d have to dig into it deeper. The privacy policy states “Fly Holdings LLC” but I’m not sure if that was from before or not. The domain still appears to be on a server that Travelzoo was using, as Travelzoo.biz is on it as well. So nothing likely has changed with the site currently from the new owners. It’s under privacy at NSI. So not sure right now.
Your domain mover articles are a must read for anyone active in the industry.
Thank you again Jamie for all your hard work putting these together. Very informative!
Thanks Tom, much appreciated!
Without this amazing series about stealth acquisitions by Dot Weekly, I would never have known just how big this “niche” industry is. Great investigation Jamie.
Seems like CSC Corporate Domains, MarkMonitor, SafeNames, MarksMen, Treadstone Group and other brokers are quietly working away on some very big deals behind the scenes, every day.
About today’s report, the news that a company with so much spare cash as Microsoft may have sold Firefly is truly bizarre. Surely someone there would have understood that that name might be highly appropriate for some not yet invented product. It’s an ideal domain for any number of apps, vr headset, processor, operating system or technology etc.
@Dave Tyrer,
Thanks Dave! I have noticed a bit of a trend with Microsoft over the years. They were always pretty actively buying domains, registering them etc. They still do both but not as actively as they had in the past. Now they are selling, so that is even more interesting. In general, big companies do sell domain assets they have long owned if they do not see a fit for the domain in the near future. (not a core asset) If the offer to purchase is a price they feel is acceptable, they sell.
I used NetGun when I was actively dating a couple years ago. It worked – since they couldn’t get away, the women always agree to a second date!
Let me add to the many accolades you’ve already received, Jamie.
Definitely, the most valuable info among all the domaining blogs!