At the end of last year, I reported the sale of Blade.com. The domain name was acquired by the aviation company that operates under the Blade branding. The domain name was sold by Anything.com, a company that owns a portfolio of exceptional domain name assets. The timing for the acquisition made sense because the company is planning to go public via SPAC merger, according to an article on the NASDAQ website.
While the sale price of Blade.com was not shared at the time the transaction was confirmed, a public SEC filing uncovered by George Kirikos has revealed the purchase price of Blade.com: $503,000. Here’s an excerpt from the Form S-4 filing with the SEC that reveals how much money was paid to acquire Blade.com:
“On December 16, 2020, the Company purchased a website domain for Blade.com for $503 in cash. Blade has recorded the purchase of the domain as an indefinite lived intangible asset, subject to impairment testing at least annually. As of December 31, 2020, the Company did not deem impairment of its website domain necessary.”
You will note that the financials shared in the article are in thousands, so the purchase price of “$503” is actually $503,000.
What was not necessarily revealed is if there were other non-cash components to the deal (such as stock options, access to shares when public, helicopter rides…etc). I spoke with Larry Fischer, a representative of Anything.com, and I asked him if he could confirm the sale price or offer any other commentary about the deal. “Unfortunately, due to an NDA, I am not allowed to comment on the deal,” he told me.
500K is the new 50K.
Assuming that the total purchase price was $503K, with no other consideration given to the seller, this buyer got an amazing deal – and the seller sold WAY too cheap.
But different perspectives on asset values is what makes a market.