Legal Review Should be Done Before Agreeing to a Deal

Elliot Silver
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4

A negotiation can be exhilarating or frustrating depending on many factors. When a domain name deal is finally reached, it should mark the end of one stage and begin the contract and escrow discussions. It should not begin the process of a legal review for the buyer.

I don’t know about you, but I have dealt with prospective buyers backing out of a couple of  deals due to their findings from a legal review. The buyers’ attorneys have either found that a trademark would be tough to get for  domain name (and/or brand) or there are existing trademarks would put an application in peril. Whatever the case may be, it is very frustrating to agree to a deal only to later learn that the prospective buyer decided to back out because their legal team has put the kibosh on the deal.

From my perspective, domain name buyers should do a cursory legal review prior to inquiring about domain names. This doesn’t have to be an extensive or exhaustive review, but it should be enough to know whether a domain name will pose legal issues for them for whatever reason. As the negotiation gets more serious and/or the buyer is able determine that there is a strong likelihood of closing a deal, they should have their attorney do whatever  full legal review is necessary to ensure an easy closing should a deal be reached. This should either be done prior to reaching a deal, or they should let the seller know a deal is contingent upon approval from their lawyer.

A legal review on a domain name should be performed before the parties reach a deal. Once a deal has been

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Looks Like Walmart Paid $9 Million for Shoes.com + IP

Elliot Silver
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20

Shoes.com LogoIt has been reported that Walmart acquired the Shoes.com domain name and has plans to utilize the domain name as an independent brand. What  I haven’t seen reported anywhere is the price Walmart paid to acquired Shoes.com.

This afternoon, George Kirikos helped me uncover what appears to be the sale price that Walmart paid to acquire the Shoes.com domain name, associated domain names, and related intellectual property. According to a pdf of a court filing I found on the Alvarez & Marsal website, Walmart bid $9 million for the “Shoes.com Technologies domain names and intellectual property.”

George Kirikos compiled several associated filings on his website. As George wrote, “After reading the above, one can see Walmart paid USD $9 million for the shoes.com domain name, plus minor related assets (social media accounts, lower quality domain names, and some trademark registrations.”

This deal includes

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Name.com Partners with Ganjapreneur on Domain Marketplace

Elliot Silver
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6

ganjapreneur-logoGanjapreneur, a website targeting professionals in the cannabis and marijuana trade, announced a new domain name sales marketplace. As you would expect, the focus is on domain names related to the business of cannabis and marijuana. With the legal status of marijuana and cannabis usage changing in many states over the last few years, this industry is growing considerably.

The company announced the launch of the marketplace in a blog post yesterday, and Andrew Rosener, CEO of Ganjapreneur, shared some additional information about the domain name sales marketplace:

“I’m really excited to announce a new marketplace for cannabis domain names and any domain name that may be a good brand fit for an upcoming  cannabis startup or product.  After all, many of the best brands don’t inherently imply cannabis at all.  The marketplace is highly curated (pun  intended) and our objective is to eliminate all the noise (filter out low quality domains). To do so, we charge $99 per domain listing and  manually review each and every domain submitted.  We also offer a substantial discount for listings of 10 domains or more. This ensures that  sellers have some skin in the game and are serious about selling their domains.  In return we will bring the best buyers available to your  listings.  We are also price / value checking every domain.  We will not allow names which we don’t think are priced accurately or within reason.    To be sure, our target market is end users:  cannabis processors, growers, dispensary owners, manufacturers, real estate operators, investors &  dreamers.  Although, there certainly are great value opportunities as well for savvy domain investors in the know.

We feel strongly that the “pay to play” model of marketplace is justified and appropriate in this case.  Between our organic web traffic, podcast,  newsletter, video content and our Social Media presence, Ganjapreneur.com and our other media channels reach nearly 5 million people monthly!  According to a recent survey we conducted, our subscriber base is 70% cannabis business owners or people who are planning to launch a cannabis  business. What that means is, even if we can’t guarantee that your domain name will sell, we can guarantee that it will be seen by the most  relevant audience of potential buyers in the World!”

An interesting addition to the news is

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GoDaddy Sells BS.com

Elliot Silver
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2

In a tweet published yesterday afternoon, George Kirikos reported that GoDaddy sold the valuable two letter BS.com domain name:

I reached out to Paul Nicks, GoDaddy GM & VP of the Aftermarket, and he confirmed that the company sold the domain name. Unfortunately for those who are interested, the sale price is not being reported by the company. Paul told me that GoDaddy did not have a buy it now price set for this domain name, but they “were entertaining offers north of $1M.”

The new registrant of BS.com is based in China, according to current Whois records. At the time of publication,

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Tennis.com Part of an $8 Million + Deal

Elliot Silver
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5

Tennis.com LogoAccording to a press release published earlier this afternoon, the Tennis.com domain name and business are pending sale as part of an $8 million+ deal. Sinclair Broadcast Group, a NASDAQ publicly traded company with a market cap of about $3.78 Billion, is buying Tennis Media Company, the owner of Tennis magazine and Tennis.com. The deal is worth $8 million in cash and there is the potential for up to $6 million in earn outs.

Sinclair already owns the Tennis Channel, which is a television channel completely dedicated to tennis. According to the press release, “[T]he acquisition will create a unified media platform that combines Tennis.com, the most visited online tennis platform in the world, and Tennis magazine, the sport’s most circulated print publication, with Sinclair’s Tennis Channel, the 24-hour television and multimedia network dedicated to the sport.”

The press release did not

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LJA.com Sells via Uniregistry

Elliot Silver
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1

The LJA.com domain name has sold, according to my morning DomainTools email update. Prior to the sale, the domain name was owned by Future Media Architects (FMA). The domain name is now registered to a Texas company called LJA Engineering & Surveying, Inc.

After seeing the Whois change, I reached out to Jeff Gabriel from Uniregistry, as I know the company has represented FMA on the sale of some of its domain names (such as Kiwi.com). Jeff confirmed that Uniregistry brokered the deal, but he could not share the purchase price for the domain name. “We can confirm a sale occurred, however our client wished it remain confidential,” Jeff told me via email.

My guess is that this was a

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