Domain Movers: MLG.com, Winnipeg.com + More

Welcome, this is Domain Movers. We focus on company related domain name transactions and report these early findings to you. These are often new brands, domain name upgrades, future marketing and advertising efforts and much more. We hope these articles help you in some way!

Domain name assets are vital to brands and these companies show that “they get it”, at least most of the time.

Here is a very small sampling of some recent detection’s by DotWeekly:

Verio, Inc. of Englewood, CO (which is part of NTT America, Inc) allowed Vrio.com to expire on April 7, 2017 at Tucows. It would appear based on whois history that the domain name was then warehoused by Tucows / YummyNames.com around July 1, 2017 after coming out of whois privacy, being on RenewYourName name servers and the commonly used parking page there after. YummyNames.com is then displayed in whois as registrant.

I spoke with the later buyer (Praveen Chidaboina, the son of Mallesh) of VRIO.com, who stated that he acquired Vrio.com in an “expired auction” on November 29, 2017 on NameJet for $811. Mallesh Chidaboina of India appears in whois on December 5, 2017 to reflect that. According to whois records, it appears the domain really expired in April 2017, not Oct/Nov 2017… so the dates are “off” to just be a normal expired auction IMO.

The domain name then sells again, according to whois records on January 12, 2018! Praveen confirmed this and sold Vrio.com via Flippa for $8,500. The current registrant is listed as Jonathan Bishoff of Denver, CO. Jonathan appears to be the CEO of Martingale Software, LLC and the buyer at $8,500. I spoke with Jonathan, who said he wasn’t able to provide comment.

Praveen did a very honest thing, because he sold the domain name to Jonathan on Flippa, because in the mean time of the transaction, Praveen was contacted by Marksmen before the transaction was completed with Jonathan. Marksmen offered more than the domain sold for on Flippa. During the process, Praveen was a bit confused due to the domain selling on Flippa and being contacted to purchase the domain from Marksmen, if they were connected or something fishy was maybe happening. Praveen sold the domain to the person who purchased it first, even though Marksmen was offering a fair amount more for the domain than it sold for on Flippa. It is not clear if Marksmen was even aware of the domain selling on Flippa and they likely were not aware of it.

To note, Marksmen registered two similar domains for a currently unknown client. Those domains were: VrioCorp.com and VrioCorporation.com on January 22, 2018 and Jonathan mentioned that he was not behind those two domain name registrations. Are we going to see it sell AGAIN?

Cinequest Inc. has acquired PictureThePossibilities.com at domain name aftermarket service Sedo for an undisclosed amount. The company currently has a website on PictureThePossibilities.org and was likely a cover purchase.

Winnipeg.com appears to have cleared Escrow via Escrow.com and the domain name has moved to privacy at GoDaddy. The domain name has been in DN Holding since October 2016. The domain remains on GoDaddy Parking service CashParking.

Worday Inc. has acquired WorkdaySolutions.com from its past owners via Afternic. The domain was registered in late November 2016 on the drop by Web.com’s venture arm New Ventures Services Corp.

Abbott Laboratories appears to be readying a Similac formula subscription service based on several new domain name registrations. Domains like SimilacFormulaClub.com, SimilacSavingsClub.com, SimilacSubscription.com, SimilacSisterhoodOfMotherhoodSavingsClub.com and FormulaSavingsClub.com. They also registered a verity of similar domains like ProAdvanceStore.com, ShopStrongMoms.com, AlimentumStore.com, PureBlissStore.com, StronMomsSavingsClub.com and TotalComfortStore.com. They also registered PureBlissBaby.store (but not PureBliss.store as its still available) and StrongMoms.store. About 32 domains were registered by Abbott in the one day. Abbott also appears to have redesigned SimilacStore.com and has launched Similac Sisterhood of Motherhood Savings Club on it.

MURRAY GOULBURN CO-OPERATIVE CO. LIMITED has acquired Milkroom.com from its past owners, Anteater Design Group, with the help of CSC Corporate Domains. The domain was listed on Sedo at the time of the sale and I wasn’t able to find a sales price.

Polimeks insaat Taahhut ve San. Tic. A.s. has acquired HenryJohn.com from BuyDomains for an undisclosed amount.

United Parcel Service of America Inc.,  registered CorruptUPS.com. Why? Not sure, as it appears the domain name has never been registered before. Since the company was founded in 1907, I’m not sure this would be a “cover purchase” because then they would have registered UPSCorrupt.com but that domain is not registered and never has been. The company does own over 3,800 domains in general.

N.A. Naspay Limited has acquired its EMD Naspay.com at domain name aftermarket service Afternic.com for an undisclosed amount. The domains whois data has shown DNEscrow since October 4, 2016 but has just come out showing N.A. Naspay Limited. The company appears to have been founded on October 25, 2016.

PerformanceMinded.com has been acquired by a currently unknown CSC Corporate Domains client from BuyDomains. The domain has been registered since October 2013 and I was not able to find a sales price. In general, many BuyDomains owned domains are priced from $2,000-$5,000 range.

Verizon Trademark Services, LLC has taken ownership of ConnectedAuto.com from its past owners, Telogis, who Verizon acquired in June 2016. ConnectedAuto.com was actually acquired around April 12, 2017 via Afternic by Telogis. Verizon uses the domain to promote Wi-fi for Toyota and Lexus via Entuen 3.0 and Lexus Enform. BuyDomains grabbed ConnectedAuto.com in the drop in 2015

Trion Worlds Inc. has registered RiftPrime.com and RiftPrimeGame.com. The company owns about 85 domain names total currently and offers games like Atlas Reactor, Devilian, Trove and Rift to name a few. It appears that Rift Prime relates to a recently announced subscription server. The companies announcement was January 18, 2018 so it took them until January 23, 2018 to register the two domains. I’d suggest doing the registrations prior to publicly announcing.

Major League Gaming has acquired MLG.co from its past owners, who had the domain for sale using the Uniregistry system. The company already owns and uses MLG.com, which is owned by parent company Activision Publishing, Inc. Activision acquired MLG.com around August 10, 2017 from a law firm called Meltzer, Lippe, Goldstein, & Breitstone, LLP. Prior to acquiring MLG.com, they were using MajorLeagueGaming.com.

Amazon registered AlexaGotSick.com, AlexaHasACold.com, AlexaLostHerVoice.com and AlexaHeadset.com. They continued with EchoGotSick.com, EchoHasACold.com, EcholLostHerVoice.com and EchoHeadset.com. To give a bit more info to these registrations, NewVoiceOfAlexa.com and NewVoiceOfEcho.com.