Welcome to the first company domain movers series, powered by DomainIQ.com on the new DotWeekly theme! Today’s list isn’t huge (which happens after a weekend) but several interesting domain name purchases, registrations and movers from large companies that I was able to dig up.
TAYLOR MADE GOLF COMPANY, INC.
Registered the domain name MissHitsHappen.com and several variations of the term with a hyphen and typo.
Women.com / Women.net
There is a pretty interesting story on these two domain names that I have covered in the past but sadly that story was lost when I lost my database. NBC owned the two domains and Ben Padnos of DONE! Ventures made an offer via Sedo for $1,200,000 for the two domains ($600K each). NBC accepted the offer but later pulled out. This created a legal battle in 2010 and in the end, Ben ended up with both Women.com and Women.net for an undisclosed amount around December 2011. Very likely around $1 Million.
Ben then sold both Women.com and Women.net about August 4, 2012 for an undisclosed sum. Clearly the transaction was in the 7 figures. Susan Johnson (ex-Facebook employee) purchased the domain names. Yesterday, TechCrunch did a story on the launch of Women.com .
I have talked with Ben in the past and we chatted a little bit last night, but as I figured, he wasn’t able to share anything extra on the two transactions.
Riot Games, Inc
Has purchased the domain name Riot.com from DigiMedia on or about 6/19/2013. The domain name appears to have gone pretty much unused according to Archive.org since the purchase but that appears to be changing. Riot.com has set name servers to Amazon hosting and will likely launch a site of some kind on the domain.
Unknown
A likely MarkMonitor client secretly registered the domain names WhisperTap.com and ReadersTap.com in September 2011 and now have transferred both domains to MarkMonitor. Unithumb.com may
also be realated.
Amazon owns the domain WhisperNet.com and several matching TLD’s, so I’m not sure if this is related.
Sony Pictures
Registered the domain name PrizedApart.com
Adobe Systems Incorporated
Registered the catchy domain name AdobeOobe.com
Has acquired Jibbigo which offers a speech translation app and within that purchase appeared to include the domain name VoiceTranslation.com . The domain has now transferred ownership to Facebook.
American Express
Registered the domain name AmexHealthyMind.com . They do not appear to own the domain name HealthyMind.com.
SquareSpace Inc.?
Likely purchased the domain name ServicesConnect.com from BuyDomains.com . The domain was listed for $2,155 and was likely the price paid. Both ServicesConnect.net (registered 3/18/2014
via Hover) and ServicesConnect.org (registered 3/19/2014) at Tucows show an ip address of SquareSpace Inc. All whois data on the domains are generic or under privacy protect.
Update 8/20/2014: Home Depot was the buyer SquareSpace IP location was displayed in whois when I searched. DNS is now set to HomeDepot.com
Robert Bosch GmbH
Have revealed that they were the buyers of MySpin.com which they likely acquired on or about 6/26/2014 with the help of CSC Corporate Domains for an undisclosed amount. MySpin.net and
MySpin.org both are registered at GoDaddy under whois privacy and both domains have updates on 8/8/2013, so there is a good chance they likely own both of those domains.
mySPIN, the easy way to link smartphones to vehicles’ infotainment systems. Link up your smartphone to mySPIN and operate apps through the vehicle’s touch screen, controller or steering
wheel control. Once the head unit has integrated the mySPIN adapter, apps can be added without requiring head unit modifications.
Bosch is forwarding MySpin.com to Boshch-SoftTech.com but not directly to the “mySPIN” part of the site.
Discovery Communications Europe Limited
Used NetNames.com to acquire DiscoveryPlay.com from BuyDomains.com’s DirectDomains. The domain was listed for $494. The domain was registered in 1999 by Discovery Products LTD but the
domain expired in late 2007 when BuyDomains grabbed the domain on the drop. According to whois, BD owned the domain from 2007-mid 2014
Warner Music Inc.
Appears to have acquired the domain name VinylTheatre.com for an undisclosed amount. They do not appear to own VinylTheater.com
Did you know that Warner Music owns the rights to the “Happy Birthday” song? They collect about $2 Million a year on it when the song is used in movies ($5,000-$30,000 royalties in movies)
Genentech, Inc
Has registered the domain names AssistanceTool.com and PatientTool.com . They also registered the domain CottonwoodTrial.com and several other “trial” domain names like Juniper, Laurel,
Hickory, Hibiscus, Gardenia.
Genentech owns the domain name Gene.com and owns a over 4,000 domain names.
Expired Auction Domains ~ GoDaddy
The following domains “sold” at expired auction via GoDaddy:
Enroute.com $20,250
Inventor.org $2,950
Mythos.com $8,400
InvestmentBrokers.com $3,561
Dubai.info $7,100
Yaske.com $1,802
Mocking.com $1,302
6-7.com $1,009
