In today’s Domain Movers that focuses on company related domain name transactions, we see a premium generic domain name that was in use, move into escrow. Some brand sales which resulted in domain movements, some new domain registrations + more.
Amazon Technologies, Inc registered a bunch of Solimo related domain names. SolimoAcademy.com, SolimoApps.com, SolimoAutomotive.com, blog, cdn, clothes and more. Solimo.com was acquired by MarkMonitor dating back to January 20, 2016 and has held generic whois data since. Amazon is a MarkMonitor client to note. Announced in 2016 in the India Times, Solimo is a private label brand by Amazon.
SuperHosting.bg LTD has acquired its exact match .com domain name, SuperHosting.com at domain name aftermarket service Afternic for an undisclosed amount.
Sift.com has moved into escrow at Escrow.com, using its concierge service. The domain was owned by Sift Ltd which is a digital media offering in the UK and was resolving to Sift.com on a full website, email etc. In March 2018, Sift.com started redirecting to Sift.co.uk. Sift has been in business for 20 years and appears to be going strong now, so this is a very interesting transaction. Google is showing 1,200 indexed pages for Sift.com, Linkedin states that 96 people work for Sift Ltd, so that is a lot of email.
For a company to sell its main domain name, that they are currently using in full force and fully established with, would require a substantial amount of $$$. I reached out to Ben Heald, co-founder and chairman of Sift to see if or what he could share. I have not heard back at time of posting but will update if or when I do hear back.
UberInsurance.com has moved into to escrow via Escrow.com. The domain has been registered since 2005 and I’d assume the buyers are ride hailing service Uber Technologies, Inc. but we will have to wait and see when whois updates.
Priceline LLC registers several automotive domain names. AutomotivePriceline.com, .us, .org, .info, .biz as well as PricelineAuto.net, .org, .info, biz (they have owned PricelineAuto.com for awhile and PricelineAutomotive.biz, .info, .org, .us and .ws. It appears they acquired PricelineAutomotive.com around May 2017 from a Jason Stroppel according to whois history records.
LuxuryCar.com has been acquired by a currently unknown MarkMonitor client. The domain was under privacy at Uniregistry and using ParkingCrew parking at the time of the transaction.
ConAgra Foods, Inc. has taken ownership of PocketThins.com from its past owner Salem Kashou (original registrant), who appears to be president of Kangaroo Brands, Inc., which owns Sandwich Bros. The domain has been registered since 2010. Arnold Breads (Arnold Products, Inc.) offers Pocket Thins and owns the trademark Pocket Thins since 2011. ArnoldBread.com is owned by Bimbo Bakeries USA, Inc.
ConAgra purchased Sandwich Bros from Kangaroo Brands, Inc. in 2018 for $87 million. This makes things interesting… since the domain was registered prior to the TM filing by Arnold, its safe in that manor but since the TM is in the “bakery” class, can ConAgra even use the domain due to the trademark by Arnold? The domain doesn’t resolve currently but did redirect to ReallyTastyFood.com, a tagline used by Sandwich Bros. in years past. At that time, the website did display pita pockets, flatbreads and sandwiches.
DreamWorks Animation LLC has registered SpyRacers.com . The domain name was registered prior but expired in June 2013 and has remained unregistered since.
LF, LLC (Lowes) registered several VR/AR related domain names: LowesVR.com, LowesAR.com, LowesVirtualReality.com and LowesAugmentedReality.com. The company owns about 1,600 domain names total.
L’Oreal has acquired CeraVe, AcneFree and AMBI brands from Valeant which was announced in January 2017 for $1.3 billion cash money. Ambi.com has now transferred ownership to L’Oreal. Cerave.com and AcneFree.com transferred ownership around June/July 2017.
Dickies.com (and many, many similar and related domains) has moved over to name servers VFC.com, which is owned by VF Corporation. VF acquired the Dickies brand in August 2017 from Williamson-Dickie Mfg. Co, a family owned company for $820 million in cash monies. VF basically owns many clothing brands that you likely know. The North Face, Wrangler, Vans, Timberland, Nautica, Lee & Jansport to mention a few.
Coinstar Inc. has allowed Coinstar.net to expire. It is not clear if the domain name was used for any systems or not. The domain expired at Register.com. From a brand protection standpoint, this would be a domain name to retain and avoid potential headaches down the road. In general, it can still be renewed and may have been an oversight.
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Excellent info there