WW.com: Weight Watchers Rebrands as WW

Elliot Silver
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6

In July of this year, I reported that the WW.com domain name appears to have sold. WW.com previously sold in 2014 for an undisclosed price. Although the Whois record was private and the domain name did not resolve in July, I speculated that Weight Watchers may have acquired the domain name. In addition to the fact that Weight Watchers’ initials are “WW,” the domain name transferred to corporate brand protection registrar SafeNames, where Weight Watchers registers its domain names.

Last week, I updated the article I wrote because WW.com started forwarding to WeightWatchers.com. Although the Whois record remains private, it could be assumed that Weight Watchers acquired the domain name because it wouldn’t make sense for anyone else to forward the domain name.

This morning, it was reported that Weight Watchers is rebranding as WW. According to an article published this morning on CNN Money, “Weight Watchers really wants to let you know that it’s not just a diet company — so much so that it’s changing its name to WW.” Smartly, the company bought the matching WW.com in advance of the rebranding.

Since noticing the changes to WW.com, I periodically

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Valley National Bank Acquires Valley.com

Elliot Silver
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8

Valley National Bancorp is a publicly traded financial institution (VLY on the New York Stock Exchange) with a market capitalization of nearly $4 Billion. The company operates Valley National Bank, a consumer facing bank that uses the three word ValleyNationalBank.com domain name for its website. Based on current Whois records, the bank appears to have recently acquired the high value Valley.com domain name.

After seeing the registrant information change to Valley National Bank on the Valley.com Whois records (courtesy of the Domain Monitor Alert tool from DomainTools), I visited the domain name to see if the bank is using it yet. The domain name is not yet being used by the bank, and I was forwarded to an offer form hosted on the Lumis Domain Brokerage website. In looking through my email records, I see that Lumis was brokering the sale of Valley.com. When I had inquired about the price in January of this year, I was told it would cost “mid six figures.”

I reached out to Hobi Michalec and Slade Michalec,

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Packet Raises $25m Series B; Buys Packet.com

Elliot Silver
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0

A company called Packet has raised $25 million in Series B funding. The news was shared this morning in a tweet from Techmeme:

A quick Google search showed that this startup is using the Packet.net domain name for its business.

A Whois search reveals that the company likely acquired the Packet.com domain name within the last week or so. On September 6, the domain name was registered to domain investor

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Mastermind.com Sold for $275,000

Elliot Silver
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15

Domain broker Darryl Lopes shared a YouTube video that was uploaded in July that reveals the Mastermind.com domain name was purchased for $275,000. Because the Escrow.com invoice looked a bit funky to me (the domain name was covered up), I did a bit of investigating to confirm the veracity of the report.

In doing a Whois search via DomainTools, I saw a screenshot that showed the Mastermind.com domain name forwarded to a eNaming landing page. eNaming is the domain brokerage founded by Tracy Fogarty. I reached out to Tracy, and she confirmed the sale to me. “Generally I do not disclose any sales or sale prices however since the buyer has I can confirm I was the broker at the price he mentions,” Tracy told me via email.

Assuming that Ron Jackson is able to chart this sale in DNJournal, it will become the 21st largest publicly reported sale of 2018.

Here’s the video Darryl sent me. In it, the buyer explains why his company bought Mastermind.com for $275,000:

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Rain.com and Rain.net Sold for $500,000 (Updated)

Elliot Silver
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7

While reviewing my Domain Monitor email from DomainTools last week, I saw that the Rain.com domain name had transferred to a different registrar under privacy. This could mean the domain name was sold, so I investigated further.

A search of my email history showed that Rain.com had been offered for sale a couple of years ago by at least two different domain brokers. I reached out to both brokers, and I learned that Rain.com had indeed been sold in a deal brokered by Joe Uddeme of NameExperts.com. Joe publicly announced the sale in a tweet earlier this morning:

I exchanged emails with Joe, and here’s what he told me about the deal:

The combined purchase price of these two domain names was $500,000. From what I can see, it looks like Rain.com was valued at $450,000 and Rain.net was valued at $50,000. I was told the buyer is using a three year payment plan, so Ron Jackson will likely track the sale on DNJournal once the final payment is made.

The buyer of these two domain names is a company called Rain Autonomics. If you visit Rain.com, you can see what looks to be a temporary landing page. Here’s what Rain Autonomics does, according to its LinkedIn profile:

“Rain enables enterprises to build and operate superior technology infrastructure. Rain’s autonomous bots free operators and transform their existing infrastructure to being easy, secure, and economical.”

The company was founded in 2013. I am not sure what domain name the company used prior to acquiring Rain.com because I could only see its LinkedIn profile, but the company got a great domain name asset in Rain.com.

February 27, 2019 Update:

It looks like Rain.com was listed for sale via Media Options for $750,000:

Salesforce.com Acquires Equality.com

Elliot Silver
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9

In one of my morning DomainTools monitor emails this morning, I saw that Salesforce.com acquired the Equality.com domain name.

When I visited the domain name this morning to see how it is being used, I was forwarded to a NameCorp contact landing page. NameCorp is a domain name brokerage and consulting firm that was founded by Alan Dunn. Although Alan told me he could not comment on this deal, he did share some insight about the state of the domain name market and private acquisitions:

“We can’t comment on individual deals but big brands continue to purchase the worlds best domain names in private transactions. My estimate is over 90 percent of brand acquisitions are never reported and many of those acquisitions would rank in, and exceed, the top sales published by DNJournal every year. Premium domain name sales are not slowing down, only the available inventory is.”

I did a Google search for Salesforce.com and equality, and I found a section on the company’s website discussing the importance of equality and the company’s Equality initiative. From what I can see, Salesforce seems to be a

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