According to Tricia Duryee of AllThingsD, CSN Stores, the company that owns and operates quite a large number of websites on descriptive domain names, has received $165 million in funding. The article mentioned that the company will be spending some of this funding on new acquisitions:
“The funding will go toward expansion both internationally and in the U.S.; for acquisitions; and to support the launch of its new brand, Wayfair.com.”
This could be an opportunity for domain owners who have built product-related websites and want to sell their stake, or for those domain investors who have great generic domain names that have not built anything on them yet. Perhaps the company would be interested in making strategic domain acquisitions.
In all, the company operates over 200 websites. Some of the websites on descriptive domain names include:
- Luggage.com
- Strollers.com
- TVStands.com
- BedroomFurniture.com
- Upholstery.com
- BedroomSets.com
- WineRefrigerator.com
- Bedrooms.com
Thanks to MO.com for the tip.
That’s some good news for sure. They will really be able to build a nice little empire with those funds and I bet they do a good job cross-promoting so that many of their sites build on each other’s success.
Elliot do you have any contacts at CSN ?
@ FX
Sent you an email.
This is very interesting stuff. Here is what the article says:
“Going forward, CSN plans to consolidate its more than 200 sites into the Wayfair.com brand in late summer.
Its two other brands of focus are AllModern.com, which offers modern design, and JossandMain.com, which is CSN’s new flash sale site offering high-end items for the home at up to 70 percent off.”
I think they are doing it because their SEO rankings of their 200 product sites are getting worse. So now they are rolling all their sites into several major sites, and will probably be relying less on SEO, and more on brand advertising.
I am pretty sure they have no interest in more long-tail product domains (the kind Epik develops). What they may have an interest is probably really short and memorable .com domains as brands. Their 3 current brands mentioned – Wayfair.com, AllModern.com, JossandMain.com – can probably be improved on.
E,
Could you forward that email to me as well?
Thanks
Sorry, can’t help anyone.
Some great domains and some really crappy ones…
https://www.csnstores.com/ourstores.php
mouse over the links to see the domain names.