Welcome to Domain Movers. We keep track of what companies are doing domain name wise and report it to you. This is interesting stuff here folks and if you don’t find it interesting, you should! Domain names are vitally important to businesses and growing at rapid pace.
Here is a small sample of some recent domain name transactions relating to companies:
Paypal Inc. registered 4 new domain names, which included: LocalSelects.com, Paypal-LocalSelects.com, PaypalLocalSelects.com and PaypalocalSelects.com
General Motors LLC registered AutonomousGm.com/net/org/us/info/us along with .co,mobi and online
Anheuser-Busch, LLC registered ShopBeerGear.com adding to the 1,800+ other domains they own.
GoDaddy sold a bunch (under 100) of 6 number .com domains out of its NameFind portfolio into the Chinese market. 083083.com is one for an example.
G.ai has been acquired from a Chinese registrant Tang Zeyong. The domain was listed for sale at Sedo and has had 8 bids/offers to date. The domain transferred into domain brand protection service MarkMonitor under generic whois data. Google uses MarkMonitor for the vast majority of its domain names and would have to be considered as a potential buyer.
NBCUniversal Media, LLC acquires MinionRush.com, a domain that has been registered since June 23, 2013 and parked with Voodoo since registration. The Minion game was announced on June 10, 2013. I didn’t see a UDRP filing for this domain but it does hold a potential that the domain was obtained with legal measures. NBC filed a trademark for the term in December 2013. Why they didn’t register the domain prior to the public announcement, I’m not sure but it clearly would have been a wise move. The game won a Kid’s Choice award for Favorite App.
Diageo Plc., owners of about 4,000 domain names, adding to that total by registering CrownYourFather.com in a potential “Father’s Day” use? The public company owns many popular adult beverage brands like Crown Royal, Captain Morgan Guinness and more.
Valvoline Licensing and Intellectual Property LLC registered the domain name ValvolineDash.com I didn’t see a product or relating service currently with the name. It could be race related, Amazon Dash Button or really anything but likely has a purpose in the near future.
La Nutre Pharma GmbH has acquired Vitamen.com out of GoDaddy’s NameFind portfolio. The Denmark based company offers food supplements and production of capsules, tablets and cosmetic products. In general, there are many products using the Vitamen term.
Uber Technologies, Inc. has acquired UberTrucking.com from a company called AirFreight.com. The domain was registered in September 2015. The domain now redirect to Uber.com.
Signcase, Inc. has acquired its exact match .com domain name, Signcase.com at domain name aftermarket service Sedo for $2,300 USD.
Starface GmbH has acquired its exact match .com domain name, Starface.com also at Sedo. This domain was acquired for $10,000 EUR.
Naturade has acquired VeganSmart.com at domain name aftermarket service Afternic. The domain has been registered since 2004. The product already exists and appears to be a fairly popular dietary aid. The term is trademarked, which was filed in 2013.
iAmHouston.com has been acquired by a currently unknown CSC Corporate Domains client. The domain was owned by HugeDomains prior and acquired at Afternic. The domain held a buy now of $2,295
Beats3.com which was registered March 24, 2016, moved into whois privacy protection between Aug-Dec 2016. The domain has now transferred into brand protection service MarkMonitor using generic whois data. I would assume this is Apple/Beats. Beats3.com was offered for sale via Sedo and Afternic and held a minimum offer amount of $9,700.
Inkanto.com has been acquired by a currently unknown CSC Corporate Domains client from HugeDomains. The domain held an offering price of $1,895. The domain has been registered since 2007 and it appears HugeDomains acquired the domain in an expired GoDaddy auction in July 2016 for $193 according to NameBio.com
DSW Inc. has acquired JeanMe.com, a domain that was registered in June 2016 after expiring.
NerdyInvestor.com has been registered by a currently unknown CSC Corporate Domains client after recently expiring at GoDaddy. The domain name is resolving to Active Engagement, which is a political fundraising agency. The company uses ActEngage.com and NerdyInvestor.com is a mirror of that site.
UltimateDataGroup.com / .net have been registered under generic whois data at CSC Corporate Domains.
VW.com which is owned by Volkswagen of America has transferred out of brand protection service CSC Corporate Domains to GoDaddy.com. Volkswagen Group uses VW.com as it’s main domain name and owns over 1,100 domain names in total. This transfer is a bit of an “odd” move IMO but appears to be not the only transfer. Volkswagen.com also moved over to GoDaddy out of CSC, VWParts.com and a few more that I checked, so this appears to be a full move of its domain assets.
In general, I’d say this is a bit of a risky move. CSC / MarkMonitor would be considered a more secure registrar IMO as a lot more domains are stolen out of GoDaddy accounts than CSC / MarkMonitor (if any). A move over to brand protection service MarkMonitor is more common in the corporate world for an example when one leaves CSC.
These domain thefts are often not the fault of GoDaddy, other than phishing attempts and clients clicking on links they shouldn’t. Also, some people lack using the 2 factor authentication feature offered, but there are even still ways around 2 factor.
VW.com really should have a registry lock on it, but it doesn’t. For an example, if VW.com was stolen, the entire companies email wouldn’t work. Imagine the mess that would create? Not just the web traffic would be lost at that time, but it would be very disruptive to the company to lose control of that domain in general. I personally keep my domain names at GoDaddy and like it but I do not own the valuable assets like VW does, nor are any of my domains the face of a $70+ billion dollar company. I think there is a reason that nearly all large corporations use the brand protection services of CSC Corporate Domains and MarkMonitor. Managing these domain names is very important and at this point, I wouldn’t say that GoDaddy focuses on brand protection services.
Again, I like GoDaddy but many times when a domain theft takes place, it’s at GoDaddy. I’m not sure if I have ever heard of one taking place at CSC or MarkMonitor. In general, almost every large company in the world either uses MarkMonitor or CSC Corporate Domains to manage there domain assets and related services needed. Maybe GoDaddy is offering the service and hasn’t announced it yet? I know Sedo recently started offering brand protection services but MarkMonitor and CSC are the two clear leaders currently.
SpeedyBooker.com Ltd has acquired BeachHuts.com from Frank Schillings Name Administration Inc. The domain name held a $66,000 buy now price.
Most domains are stolen at GoDaddy probably because they are the biggest registrar. And most domains (like you said) are stolen from inexperienced owners.
Also do you think that you would hear from CSC or MarkMonitor about stolen domains? They make you sign NDAs before you can sign up for an account.
Godaddy has its positive and its shady aspects. CSC doesn’t supply huge services, from what I noticed in its dealings with Apple.
Great article there Jamie. I’ve owned vw.uk.com for many years now, listed it on sedo without any interest. No response from VW when tried to sell direct to them several times. Will start to look at some new avenues to sell this domain and educate further thanks to your article.