Welcome to the latest company Domain Movers series by DotWeekly. We keep track of corporate related domain name transactions and report those findings to you. Here are the latest movements detected over the past 24 hours:
Nuven.com has been acquired from its past owner by a currently unknown CSC Corporate Domains client. The domain has been registered since 2004 and registered at Fabulous.com prior under privacy for many years.
TeamUltra.com has been acquired for Anheuser-Busch, LLC, with the help of The Treadstone Group, Inc. The domain name is redirecting to MichelobUltra.com currently with a specific page to “Join Team Ultra”.
BeautyCrush.com which was acquired by Coty Inc. for about $2,499 around June 2, 2017 has now moved to Prehype as the registrant. Prehype is a venture development firm, co creating startups.
Merck KGaA registered a new domain name and that was AdvancingLifeSciences.com. The company owns around 8,800 domain names total and used Key-Systems Brand Shelter corporate offerings.
Gild.com has changed ownership from Gild, Inc. of San Francisco California to Gilead Sciences Inc. of Foster City, California. According to Crunchbase.com, Gild Inc. was acquired by Citadel on October 20, 2016. Gilead Sciences Inc. is a NASDAQ listed, public company with the stock ticker of GILD and appears to be the reason behind the purchase of the domain.
Microsoft has acquired AirBand.com, a term I mentioned on July 20, 2017 after they registered several different domains related, like RuralAirband.com, MicrosoftAirband.com + several other TLD’s. Interestingly, if you are a Microsoft Blogs reader, President and Chief Legal Officer Brad Smith spilled the beans on July 10, 2017 of the Airband name, stating “Microsoft’s new Rural Airband Initiative”. You can read the blog post here. Airband.com has been registered since January 18, 2000 and was owned by Airband Communications / GTT Communications of New York, NY. I considered investing into the domain name but the term also holds 12 active trademarks on it, 2 of them by Microsoft, dating back to 2000 that were owned by Airband Communications Inc. prior. So it would appear that Microsoft acquired the domain name and trademarks.
Tony Hansel, VP, Deputy General Counsel of GTT stated on July 19, 2017… “The domain name is not for sale” when contacted about Airband.com. Microsoft likely presented a significant offer and it sold, along with the TM’s, likely prior to my contact.
Grizzle.com has been sold by Tucows, out of its Mailbank portfolio for an undisclosed amount. The domain is currently pendingtransfer and shows an organization of Grizzle as the owners, as well as a DewMedia.org email address on the admin contact information.
Eco.org which DotWeekly mentioned likely sold on July 10, 2017, now has a coming soon page. When I mentioned the domain on the 10th of July, it was redirecting to Eco.com, which had also transferred to SafeNames in late 2016. Now the redirect has reversed with Eco.com redirecting to Eco.org. The webpage states that “Eco is coming. Be notified when we launch” with a button to Follow @Eco on Twitter, with the matching Twitter handle @eco. The Twitter page displays Eco.com and was created September 2016.
SealedAir has acquired ProFormula.com, out of GoDaddy’s NameFind portfolio. The domain name is redirecting to ProFormulaByDiversey.com, so this is a domain name upgrade for the company. Unilever, Sun, Persil, Cif, Comfort and Domestos brands are connected. The Pro Formula By Diversey brand appears to be in the UK.
Spoonk Space Inc. acquired SunMask.com out of GoDaddy’s NameFind portfolio. The companies main product currently is the Spoonk Mat, which is for sleeping. They also offer a Spoonk Groove Ball and Spoonk Magnetic Roller. So the sun mask is likely a new offering on the way.
Debug, and a slew of related domains were registered, likely by Google but are currently using generic whois data. Google acquired Debug.com last year to note and has since launched a site on it to stop bad bugs, with good bugs. On August 2, 2017 domain names like DebugChina.com, DebugUSA.com, DebugTaiwan.com, DebugMiami.com and many more were registered. The Debug Project is run under Verily Life Sciences LLC, which is owned by Google. Debug Fresno is the first U.S. study, which was announced on July 14, 2017 by Verily.
Humana Inc. registered a bunch of “HP Mail” type domain names. HPDelivers.com, HPDrugs.com, HPMailMeds.com, HPMaildNow.com, HPMedsNow.com, HPPriceQuote.com, HPSpecialtyMail.com, HPStartNow.com and a few more. I’m assuming the HP acronym is intended for Humana Pharmacy but most know HP for the computer company IMO. Several more acronym domains were also registered, HSPCares.com, HSPDelivers.com, HSPInfusion.com, HSPMedsNow.com, HSPScripts.com, SaveWithHP.com, SaveWithHSP.com, RXFromHP.com and HumanaSpecialtyMeds.com, HumSpecialtyPharmacy.com, SpecialtyForYour.com. I would personally brand it differently. Acronyms’ with words get confusing.
Carlson Wagonlit Travel, Inc. has acquired RoomIt.com. The domain has been registered since February 2002. The company has launched a website on the domain already, relating to RoomIt By CWT.
WMAgency.com has been acquired by a currently unknown CSC Corporate Domains client and was acquired at domain name aftermarket service Sedo.
The Sherwin-Williams Co. registered AquArmor.com after the domain expired. The company owns a TM on AquArmor.
Verisign, Inc. registered more domain names, BetterDomainSearch.com, BetterURLs.com, CreateIncredibleDomains.com, CustomDomainCreator.com, DomainEnabler.com, DomainsPossible.com and ChooseGreatDomains.com. The new registrations continued with: FindAvailableDomains.com, FindAvailableDomainsEasily.com, FindAvailableDomainsNow, and many more similar related.
Microsoft Corporation has taken ownership of BotletStore.com and has launched a site on it. The domain name was registered at Google’s registrar under privacy prior and registered on September 26, 2016. Microsoft filed a trademark for Botlet on December 8, 2016. Botlet.com, registered since June 2008 is for sale currently, with a minimum $10,000 make offer price.
The Procter & Gamble Company registered the domain name TalkAboutBias.com
There’s a good chance that WMAgency.com is connected to the former William Morris Agency, the world’s oldest talent agency, formed in the vaudeville days in 1898.
They operate on the WMA.com domain (and WMEEntertainment.com), but since they merged with Endeavor in 2009, they are now actually called WME not WMA. Which leaves them with very untidy and confusing branding.
This is a good example of how M&As can have a startling effect on the domainosphere. Another is the forthcoming Dow Chemical and DuPont merger.
Thanks for the writeup. I remember when beautycrush.com dropped last year. It was picked up by “skybug” at snapnames.