Welcome to another round of DotWeekly Discoveries powered by our friends at DomainIQ.com . In this series, I do some digging and find some domain names that have been recently registered or purchased by large companies. Some domains may be moving for other reasons as well. These domain names are often early indicators to new products, services and much more.
Here we go with today’s list:
Sony Music Entertainment
Has purchased the domain name MusicDeals.com . Eric Borgos of Impulse Communications Inc. was shown in whois as the owner in March 2013 and a mid May 2013 record shows a change to privacy and a different registrar. I spoke with Eric and the transaction took place in May 2013 (likely about May 15). The domain was sold in a “package of domains” Eric was selling at that time but is under an NDA, so the other domains or selling price was not disclosed.
Eric did state:
I checked my old emails, and had listed MusicDeals.com for sale in the UpMarketDNs.com email newsletter for $20,000 on May 1st 2012, and in prior years I had quoted people $25,000 for it. I probably would have accepted $10,000 for it.
This doesn’t mean Eric sold the domain for $10K, it just means that it’s likely Eric had that price in mind when he sold the domain in the package deal.
The June 2013 buyer transferred the domain name out of Moniker to eNom and put the domain under privacy protection at the time of transfer. The domain remained that way until September 13, 2014 when the domain was transferred to MarkMonitor and revealed Sony as the owners.
It is not believed Sony was the buyer of MusicDeals.com in the May 2013 transaction of the package of domains, that likely took place very recently.
I did a fair amount of digging since there was an NDA and Eric couldn’t share much info and I believe Demand Media / Rightside was the buyer of the package of domains from Eric. A May 17, 2014 Archive.org of MusicDeals.com has a “This domain may be for sale, Contact Us” link, which links to “[email protected]”. That domain is owned by “RightSide” aka Demand Media. A December 31, 2013 Archive record also shows the same email link. So I am confident that Demand Media / Rightside was the seller of MusicDeals.com to Sony. HotKeys does offer domain parking, but I couldn’t find that they offer email addresses on the HotKeys.com domain!
Sony loaded up domain name servers to UltraDNS and have launched a website on the domain, offering “Special Music Offers” from the “Sony Music Store”. This appears to be some kind of “Special Offer” because the offer is only available to AARP members.
Red Bull GmbH
Has used the domain buying service Brand Certified and purchased the four letter domain name RBCP.com . The domain name has had a for sale lander on it for many years (dating back to at least 2006).
Allianz Worldwide Partners SAS
Registered the domain names MakeTravelingBetter.com, WeMakeTravelingBetter.com and MakingTravelBetter.com
UPM-Kymmene Corporation
Registered the domain name LocallyGrownDiesel.com
UPM is a Finnish pulp, paper and timber manufacturer. UPM-Kymmene was formed by the merger of Kymmene Corporation and Repola Ltd and its subsidiary United Paper Mills Ltd in 1996.
Betaworks Studio, LLC
Has either purchased or partnered with Findings, Inc. and the domain name Findings.com . The domain has transferred ownership from Findings, Inc. TO Betaworks.
Betaworks is a startup studio and seed stage venture capital company based in New York City that invests in network-focused, consumer-facing media businesses.
U.S. Dept. of the Treasury
Has registered the domain name HampApplication.com
The domain was registered before but expired at GoDaddy on June 27, 2014. Hamp is an acronym for Home Affordable Modification Program.
Triad Retail Media
Registered the domain name SeekAndStash.com . Triad is a digital advertising agency who works with brands like Walmart, P&G and eBay to name a few.
Electronic Arts Inc.
Has allowed the domain name SproutGames.com to expire and the domain was grabbed on the drop via eNom. CHILDREN’S NETWORK, LLC owns a pretty popular series called “Sprout”.
Google Inc.
Has revealed they were behind the domain name registration of YourPrimer.com . The domain name was registered June 18, 2014 via GoDaddy and put under whois privacy. The domain has recently been transferred into MarkMonitor. The domain only resolves to a white page currently. This is a pretty common practice to “hide” domain registrations.
HP
Had sold the domain name Bristol.com in the recent Ha.com auction for $40,250 and the domain transferred to Tucows and 121 Directories Limited was shown as the owner on 8/30/2014 but now the domain name has transferred
BACK to HP and back to the domain registrar MarkMonitor? I have reached out to Aron of Ha.com to find out more info but have not heard back at time of posting. I will update when I hear back from Aron.
Update from Aron: No, it is going through. HP had an issue with the whois and other things. It will be completed this week.
