Elon Musk Acquires X.com from Paypal (Updated)

Elliot Silver
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51

X.com is one of the few single letter .com domain names, and I would argue that it is one of the most valuable domain names. The X.com domain name was originally a financial services company co-founded by entrepreneur Elon Musk. X.com was the predecessor of PayPal, and it does not look like the domain name has been used independently from PayPal (or Ebay) since then.

I recently detected a Whois change involving the X.com domain name (Jamie Zoch also mentioned it on Twitter  and in an article on DotWeekly). For many years, X.com was registered to PayPal Inc. On July 5, I noticed that the Whois information on X.com went private, and the domain name was transferred out of MarkMonitor to GoDaddy. This led me to believe that PayPal sold the domain name, and I reached out to several media and investor relations contacts at PayPal to see if the company could share more information about the status of X.com.

Late this afternoon, Amanda Miller, Director of Corporate Communications at PayPal, confirmed that the company sold the domain name.

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Did Print.com Sell via Sedo?

Elliot Silver
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12

According to the DomainTools domain registrant email I receive every morning, it looks like the Print.com domain name was briefly registered to Sedo’s Transfer Service. This would indicate to me that the domain name was sold and is in escrow with Sedo.

When I checked the Whois information this morning, the domain name is now registered to an entity in the Netherlands. Prior to this, Print.com was registered to a California-based entity, according to DomainTools Whois history tool. Sedo’s sold domain name RSS feed does not list Print.com. As of this morning, Print.com does not resolve to an active website, so I am unsure about how it will be used.

I reached out to several contacts at Sedo to see if they could confirm the sale, and if so, share any details about the sale. Dave Evanson, Sr. Domain Broker at Sedo, replied to me and said he was unable to comment about the domain name. I searched my email records, and I do not see any emails from Sedo mentioning the domain name, so if the company was involved in the deal, it may have been as a buyer’s broker or they may have been instructed to market the domain name stealthily. Again, this is just a guess.

Incidentally, Dave Evanson tweeted about an approximate $2 million deal he and two Sedo colleagues brokered recently:

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Hilco Streambank Marketing Vanity.com

Elliot Silver
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5

According to an article in the Milwaukee Business Journal, Vanity Shop filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy this past March. Following this filing, Hilco Streambank has been retained to sell the Vanity Shop assets, which includes the valuable Vanity.com domain name.

Hilco Streambank Executive VP Jack Hazan told me “the assets include the Vanity trademark for apparel, retail and accessories and the premium one-word domain name – Vanity.com.” Hilco set up a marketing page on its website that has more details about what is included in the sale as well as some detailed information about the company and its background.

When I received the email from Jack, the first thing that stuck out to me was the Vanity.com domain name. As you may recall, Vanity.com was involved in a 2012 UDRP dispute. When the decision was published and the panel ruled in favor of the complainant (Vanity Shop), Mike Berkens wrote an article about it and called it “a case that should be VERY troubling for all domain holders.” He also wrote that

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Mike Berkens is “Ready for More”

Elliot Silver
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26

On occasion, I have read comments that called early domain investors like Mike Berkens “lucky” for getting into the domain investment business at an early stage. Some people have even said that those early birds couldn’t replicate their business if they started today. Well, those people are wrong.

Mike Berkens famously sold the majority of his company’s domain portfolio to GoDaddy for tens of millions of dollars in 2015. Mike could retire and/or live a life of luxury, traveling the world with Judi and never buy or sell a single domain name again. Mike is still buying and selling domain names, and he is continuing to prove that he is one of the smartest people in the business who could start over today and still do better than 99.9% of everyone else in the business.

Case in point:

Mike acquired the domain name ReadyForMore.com a little over a year ago at a public auction on DropCatch.com. Anyone could have bid against Mike and beat his bids, but he prevailed in the

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Personal Info May Be Used When Selling a Domain Name

Elliot Silver
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0

When I am negotiating the purchase of a domain name as an investment, I might do some cursory research to learn more about the seller. If I am trying to buy a one word .com from a guy who owns a $15 million townhouse in San Francisco, I can probably forget about gradually increasing my offers by $5k every few months.

My presumption is that most buyers of domain names will also do research to discover potentially helpful information about the owner of the domain names. In fact, I would imagine the research done by buyers and their brokers may be much more than cursory information. This information can be used to determine the owner’s financial position and may also be used to establish some rapport with the domain owner.

It is probably pretty easy for someone to find out a domain owner’s personal details – like a home address. This may give a buyer a general idea about the person’s affluence. I would imagine if the domain name is owned by a company, this information may be more difficult to obtain. In general, I would imagine trying to prevent a prospective buyer from uncovering this type of information is likely a losing battle and would take a ton of time and effort.

Investigating social media is a good way for a prospective buyer to gain intel on a domain owner. Many people publish various telling

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HH.com Domain Name Changes Hands (Updated)

Elliot Silver
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2

According to Whois records, it appears that the high value HH.com domain name has sold. Based on the current Whois records showing the domain name is registered to an escrow account at 62.com, it would appear that the domain name was acquired by a China based domain name registrant. I noted the Whois change in my daily DomainTools Whois Monitor alert email, and George Kirikos also wrote about it on Twitter this morning:

Prior to the most recent Whois change, the domain name was privately registered. Prior to the private registration, the registrant of HH.com was The Hecker Law Group, a law firm based in Los Angeles, California. The law firm used HH.com for its website, and for the time being, HH.com is now forwarding to HeckerLaw.com. Whenever a company sells a domain name like this, it is wise to negotiate the usage of the domain name for enough time to ensure clients understand that the domain name was sold and another domain name is going to be used.

Assuming the domain name sold, I would imagine this deal is  in the 7 figure range. I looked through my records, and I see that HH.com was being brokered by John Mauriello  of DomainAssets.com at one point last year. I reached out to John

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