Welcome to company domain movers in a series I call DotWeekly Discoveries in which I scour the web and find domain names that were recently registered, purchased and simply moving by large companies. These are often early discoveries that lead into new products, brands, services and simply unknown futures because it’s so early in the discovery. I try to provide information with each domain but sometimes I miss some data due to the large amount of research already to simply obtain what I find, so at times more data could be shared.
Stanley Black & Decker, Inc.
Has purchased the domain name KitMaster.com from BuyDomains.com . The domain name was registered in May 2002. Stanley has owned the KitMaster.net domain name since May 30, 2013. KitMaster.com was listed for $1,888 and was the likely sales price.
eLance.com – oDesk
Has transferred the main domain name eLance.com out of Network Solutions and to MarkMonitor.
Unknown
A currently unknown MarkMonitor client has likely purchased the domain name BetaLab.com from Tucows. The domain was owned by AOL Studios back many years.
Unknown
Another currently unknown client (likely one of many Sky Group’s) has purchased the domain name SkyGroup.com . There could be a lot of buyers for this one and when this happens the likely sales price can climb pretty
quickly due to demand and the fact that only “one Sky Group” can own SkyGroup.com!
Home Box Office, Inc.
Registered the domain names OneUpHim.com .net and .org
HERE Global B.V. (Nokia)
Did a bit of a name change? Navigation.com which was owned by HERE North America, LLC and used domain registrar Ascio, transferred the domain to MarkMonitor and the registrant name changed to HERE Global B.V. Navigation.com has a focus on GPS Navigation Systems. Navigation resolved as NAVTEQ for many years and on August 11, 2013 the domain changed ownership from Navteq to Here North America, LLC.
Navteq was purchased by Nokia in 2007/2008 and renamed HERE in 2011 by Nokia.
Fox Inc.
Which has owned the domain name BigGameDallas.com since May 2007 and used the domain until around May 24, 2012 until it parked the domain name at Sedo, has once again put the domain name to use and is redirecting it to Fox.com .
Similar actions have taken place with the domain name WeatherBucket.com
Sprout.com
Something is up with the domain. It was owned by Sprout Software of Boston and the domain was registered with Pairnic but has moved to the domain name registrar MarkMonitor and put under generic whois data. The domain currently does not resolve… so it may have been purchased by somebody.
Alibaba Group Holding Limited
Appears to have purchased the domain name My-Bank.com
Allianz Worldwide Partners SAS
Is now shown as the owners of Assistance.com . Mondial Assistance S.A.S was the past owner but it does appear that Allianz and Mondial are connected in some way…
Microsoft
Has obtained the domain name MicrosoftSway.com from a Tim Stafford who registered the domain at GoDaddy on August 1, 2014, which just so happens to be the day that I broke the news about Microsoft was very likely launching a product called Sway.
I reached out to Tim and he stated that Microsoft sent a cease and desist letter, so Microsoft used legal means to get the domain.
Amazon
Staying on the legal theme, it appears Amazon has used legal means to obtain 3 domain names that were registered in April 2014 and those domains are AmazonFireWatch.com, AmazonFireWear.com and AmazonFirePhone2.com
NBA
Registered the domain name AustinSpurs.com on August 19, 2014 and have now redirected the domain name to the Austin Spurs page on the NBA site. Austin Toros have changed its name to Austin Spurs, which is part of the NBA development league and the reason for the domain registration.
VeriSign, Inc.
Has registered the domain names ThirtyYearsOfCom.com and ThirtyYearsOfNet.net which is one year away yet with Symbolics.com being registered March 15, 1985.
Marvel Characters, Inc.
Has purchased the domain name NewYourBulletin.com from BuyDomains. The domain had a listing price of $788 and was the likely sales price.
Poster.com
Has been sold at Sedo but the sales price and buyer are currently unknown. The domain was owned by Poster.com, Inc / Hunter Cohen and on July 16, 2014 the domain went into privacy until 10/8/2014 when whois displayed Warren Struhl of WS Group in Flordia. October 15, 2014 the domain went into a Sedo holding account.
I always see these large companies purchase domains from Buy Domains for such low prices. Black and Decker bought KitMaster for $1,888 and Marvel bought NewYorkBulletin for $788. If these names could not be easily bought with a Buy Now price how much do you think they could have sold them for to these companies.
@Todd,
Far more domains that I see have higher prices that they sold for. A lot that I see have “make offer” when I dig historical type searches and then I often do not include a price it sold for. I’d say a sweet spot is in the $2K-$5K range. Also consider the majority of “high priced sales” simply go unreported. The majority of the domain names I often report on wouldn’t even make it public they sold if somebody didn’t dig up the data and publicize it more than whois data. On the flip side, if somebody lists a domain for $788 with a buy it now and somebody wants it… you are going to see those sales. BuyDomains, HugeDomains and a lot of domain sellers often leave money on the table with lower buy it now’s but it depends on the sellers strategy. BuyDomains, HugeDomains are volume sellers and they are making profits with lower sales prices.