This is Domain Movers, a unique series where hours of research is put in daily to detect domain transactions, most by companies around the world for efforts in branding, marketing, advertising and domain name upgrades.
We highlight these transactions as most would go unreported otherwise but we feel it is very important to help other businesses understand the great value in domain names to your business. You always find similar articles to these, in the Domain Discoveries category here on DotWeekly.
Here is a very small sample of some recent domain transactions detected:
Lenovo has transferred ThinkPad.com out of brand protection service MarkMonitor to domain registrar eName. The domain redirects to Lenovo.com and a page about the ThinkPad that just celebrated its 25th Anniversary. Lenovo.com remains at MarkMonitor currently.
OMS Investments, Inc. (Scott’s) registered GMSensors.com, adding to the 778 other domains currently owned by the company.
GoDaddy sold about 45 domains out of its NameFind portfolio in 1 day. SuperEasy.com and Unification.com were two that stuck out to me.
Hastee Pay LTD based in London, has acquired its EMD HasteePay.com out of GoDaddy’s NameFind portfolio for an undisclosed amount.
Snapchat has acquired LensStudio.com from HugeDomains which held a buy now of $9,395. The domain is redirecting to the sub-domain lensstudio.snapchat.com. Snap Inc. announced Lens Studio in mid December 2017 which is a tool for creating your own AR effects.
CashMagnet.com has been acquired by a currently unknown CSC Corporate Domains client. The domain name held an offering price of $50,000. The domain has been registered since 1998 and was parked with Sedo at the time of the sale, although it does not appear the domain sold at Sedo. To note, CashMagnet.net is currently an expired domain name auction at GoDaddy that ends February 1.
Frito-Lay North America, Inc. registered a great domain that I was surprised was available, FlavorKick.com. The domain was registered before, but expired on October 16, 2016 at GoDaddy. It appears the domain dropped on January 2, 2017 and wasn’t grabbed until the registration on January 24, 2018 by Frito-Lay. Was there a trademark risk and the reason no domain investors took a chance on it? Doesn’t appear to be and was just a domain that slipped through the cracks.
Rexel, Inc. / Summers Group, Inc. (Gexpro.com) allowed Triv.com to expire via MarkMonitor and it was grabbed on the drop by SafeNames Ltd. I didn’t even know that SafeNames chased dropping names, but they must, at least at times.
PicMonkey, LLC has acquired VidMonkey.com from GoDaddy’s NameFind portfolio for an undisclosed amount. Pic Monkey is a popular picture editing service from several former Google employees, who may now be getting ready to offer video editing?
Do.com has been sold by Media Options, shortly after they had acquired the domain, from what appears to be Redo Inc. Do was acquired by Amazon AWS on March 8, 2017. Based on whois records, I’d say Media Options acquired the domain around November 28, 2017 time frame, from CEO/Founder of Do.com Jason Shah.
The domain has now transferred to GoDaddy, with brokerage firm 62.com currently listed as the registrant. They potentially had a client to purchase the domain and I’m fully expecting the sales price to be US 7 figures at a minimum!
Do.com was also once owned by Salesforce before the domain moved to whois privacy around July 4, 2014, after Salesforce shut down the service it had on the domain. Salesforce was an investor in Do.com, which may have included the domain name and potentially some cash. I’m surprised Amazon didn’t take the domain name as an asset of Do.com when it acquired it and that may be an interesting story itself. At the time Amazon acquired Do.com, they had about $2.4 Million in funding. Consider that Do.com, the domain name itself, sold for likely around half of that funding amount or more… it was a valuable asset.
Assona GmbH has acquired BikeProtect.com from Name Administration Inc. The domain name held a buy now of $27,300 but the exact sales price is unknown.
TheInput.com has been acquired by a currently unknown CSC Corporate Domains client, but is likely Univision. The domain is redirecting to TrackRecord.net, which is co-branded with other Univision websites. The domain name held a $1,995 buy now. The domain has been registered since 2012.
Revolt TV and Media, LLC has acquired RevoltStudio.com with the help of Marksmen. The domain was owned by HugeDomains prior and held a buy now of $2,095. I reported this in December 2017 but the buyer was not known at that time.
RealNetworks, Inc. has acquired Kontxt.com at domain name aftermarket service Sedo. The domain is already resolving to a new offering called Kontxt by Real Networks. The service relates to txt messaging, hence the name.
Schlage Lock Company LLC has acquired Alle.co. Schlage’s parent company is called Allegion, so that may have something to do with the purchase because its NYSE stock ticker is ALLE.
MarkMonitor has sold MW2.com to a Chinese registrant.
GoDaddy sells premium generic domain name Syrup.com. The buyer according to public whois records is a Claudio Paone of Boston, MA. Mid to high five figure range (potentially lower six figure) would be the likely purchase price. This appears to have been a prior Vertical Axis owned domain that GoDaddy recently acquired some of the companies domains.
Dirt.com which went into escrow at the end of 2016, appears to have come out of escrow now as whois has changed to privacy. It is not clear at this time who purchased the premium generic domain name that was likely paid on payments.
Flo2Cash Limited has acquired Plore.com out of GoDaddy’s NameFind domain name portfolio for an undisclosed amount.
Hey Jamie, great digging as usual. Did Godaddy acquire Vertical Axis domains like they did with NameFind? VA domains used to be ‘not available for sale’ but that seems changed now.
Do.com is a hyper domain, not sure how Amazon skipped it!
Yes, GoDaddy acquired part of VA’s domain portfolio (first reported by DNW.com) and included it into the NameFind portfolio. Kevin Ham’s domain companies always sold domains and did so via Mark.com, landers on the domains etc. I’m sure some were not for sale but I’d assume most were.
Thanks Jamie,
You are doing a great job with your information and soon will be rewarded.
Thank you so much! I appreciate your comments, as they help keep this tiny engine moving forward. I hope this whois stuff settles itself soon, as it gets harder to provide these reports with GoDaddy changing things and talks of whois in general hiding info.