Bob’s Discount Furniture is a home furniture chain with stores throughout the United States. The company started in New England, and it has a pretty big presence in the northeast US. Smartly, Bob’s (as it is more commonly known around here), appears to have upgraded to Bobs.com, which is currently forwarding to MyBobs.com. I would not be surprised to see the company opt to move its website to Bobs.com in the future though.
For quite some time, Bobs.com had been owned by a band called The Bobs. A recent screenshot on Screenshots.com shows a notice stating that the band is no longer touring or doing live shows. I made an offer to buy the domain name in October of 2017, and I was told they had recently declined a better offer at the recommendation of a domain broker. Out of respect for the former domain name and the privacy of our conversation, I will not reveal the offer they told me they declined.
I recently checked back in on the domain name and noticed it was forwarding to Bob’s Discount Furniture’s website. The current Whois record is private, so I could only speculate and assume it was acquired by the furniture store. A historical Whois record from early May shows the registrant as Name Ninja, the domain name consulting and brokerage firm founded by Bill Sweetman. I spoke with Bill on the phone and he told me he represented the buyer on the deal and the seller was represented by domain broker Mark Daniel. Neither Bill nor Mark would share any terms of the deal, and since I know the offer they reportedly declined, I will refrain from speculating on the price.
I have been tracking Bobs.com because I like domain names like this. It’s a domain name that could be used as the word “bobs” or “Bob’s.” It’s the reason I bought Franks.com and a few others over the years. Another similar name I was trying to buy was Pats.com. It looks like the New England Patriots were wise to offer more than I offered, and I am happy my favorite football team got it.
Bobs.com was a great acquisition for the furniture store.
Seen their commercials a lot. Smart move. They get it.
Really smart acquisition as MyBobs.com was less than ideal for a company with over $1B in revenue annually. We all know that sometimes the ideal name is not available. In addition, in the northeast there is also Bob’s stores so better to have the definitive dot com. Great investment.
Mike
That was an excellent purchase and I too bet they will change to bobs.com as soon as they fully assess how to best go about doing that. I really like that store. I once furnished every room in my house there. Great deals.
Good article Elliot. Getting this domain for our brand was a no-brainer. Bill was excellent to work with. I also consulted my son Julian who has great domain experience, as well as a few others inside our organization.
The opportunity to get the brand defining domain was an easy decision, no way I could pass up the one in a blue moon opportunity to secure it.
I can’t divulge the price but it was a fair price that we all agreed upon, the deal was fairly quick and painless thanks to Bill and his team.
We have a plan to convert over, but we have so much marketing material and other projects ahead of it it’ll have to wait a few months. Rest assured when we can safely move over we will.
Congratulations on the purchase. Smart move.