Verisign Tool Can Help Identify an Inquiry

Elliot Silver
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9

Verisign has a tool called DomainView which can be used to see what types of .com and .net domain names are being registered. You can use the tool to search daily registrations as well as registrations for a set period of time of your choosing. In addition to the novelty of seeing domain registration trends, the tool can also be used to help identify an inbound inquiry.

Oftentimes, people who are interested in buying a domain name in the aftermarket will hand register other, similar domain names that are unregistered. They do this because they want to protect the brand they are planning to create. If you are able to see other domain names they recently registered, you may gain valuable intelligence that can help you respond to their inquiry. This is especially the case if you don’t know the identity of who is inquiring (ie a Sedo inquiry or broker inquiry).

Let’s say someone inquires about

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VE.com Acquired by Aron Meystedt

Elliot Silver
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4

The Whois for VE.com changed over the weekend, and Aron Meystedt of XF.com Company is listed as the new owner of the domain name. Aron is also the Director of the Intellectual Property Department at Heritage Auctions.

I don’t recall seeing the domain name listed for sale anywhere, so I don’t have any idea of the price to acquire the domain name. I emailed Aron this morning seeking a comment about the acquisition, and here’s what he told me:

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Hilco Streambank Retained to Sell Santa.com

Elliot Silver
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4

You may have noticed that the Hilco Streambank advertising banner changed yesterday. The company is now advertising the sale of Santa.com and its related trademarks. Santa.com is registered to Santa Holdings, LLC. The domain name uses a @mediaoptions.com email address, and when I asked Andrew Rosener about it, he told me the domain name is owned by three partners.

I asked Jack Hazan of Hilco Streambank for some details about the sale listing, and here’s what he told me:

“We were retained as the exclusive agent to sell the Santa.com domain name and related trademarks. No auction date has been set. We are currently soliciting private offers.”

It doesn’t look like

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PX.com Sells for More Than $1 Million

Elliot Silver
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11

Last week, I detected a change in the Whois registration details for PX.com, a domain name owned by Media Options. I reached out to Media Options CEO Andrew Rosener for details. He confirmed that the domain name was sold, and he told me that more information about the sale would be forthcoming.

This morning, I received a press release announcing the PX.com sale. The company that bought PX.com is ReviMedia, a lead generation company based in New York City. According to the press release which I published below, PX.com sold for “$1 Million cash plus additional consideration.” I am not sure what the additional consideration is, but I would guess it is either performance incentives or a stake in the business.

Even without the additional consideration, this million dollar deal is the second largest publicly reported sale of 2015, according to DNJournal.

If you follow the domain investment space, you know that two letter .com domain names have been selling for significantly higher prices during the last couple of years. I believe PX.com had been offered for sale previously at a lower price, and I think a $1m sale illustrates how these domain names have gone up in value.

As you will note in the release below, ReviMedia plans to rebrand its platform as PX.com.

Here is the entire PX.com press release:

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Creative Domain Deal: Lease with Purchase Option

Elliot Silver
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9

Earlier today, I wrote an article sharing some thoughts about Zalmi Duchman’s Forbes article. In my opinion, the biggest takeaway was Duchman’s advice about being creative to find a deal that works for both parties. Creativity can go a long way in making a mutually beneficial deal happen.

I want to discuss a type of deal that could benefit a startup that needs a particular domain name and a domain name owner: a lease with a purchase option. Essentially this allows a company to pay a monthly fee to use a domain name, and at any point in time, they could purchase the domain name for an agreed upon price. I want to share some advantages of this type of deal for both parties:

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Give.com Acquired by HostGator Founder

Elliot Silver
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0

Earlier this week, Give.com was sold for $500,000 in a sale transacted via Sedo. The Whois record for Give.com updated yesterday, and I learned that the domain name was acquired by Brent Oxley, the founder of HostGator (who sold the company to Endurance International Group for over $200 million).

After seeing the Whois change, I reached out to Brent to learn more about the acquisition and his plans for the domain name.

Brent told me that Sedo’s Dave Evanson emailed him a list of high value domain names he was brokering, and Give.com was on the list. Although Brent was not in the market for a domain name at that time, he had been planning to set up a charity and had not finalized a name for it yet. The email proved to be serendipitous, and Give.com will be used for Brent’s charity.  Commenting on the deal, Dave told me, “I was aware of Mr. Oxley’s outstanding background and was delighted I was able to negotiate a price that made seller and buyer happy.”

Brent shared his vision for how Give.com will be used and when the charity will launch:

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