One of my favorite domain names has changed hands. Cool.com, which has been owned by Future Media Architects for many years, is pending transfer. The domain name was being brokered by Saw. I reached out to Amanda Waltz and Jeff Gabriel from Saw, and both confirmed that the domain name was sold.
As I recall, Cool.com had a high seven figure price tag. Neither Jeff nor Amanda were able to tell me the acquisition price, which is not a surprise. Commenting on the sale, Jeff said, “I can’t tell you the price but I can say that cool has always had a steady stream of interested buyers and we are excited to see it end up with a buyer who has a great plan.”
Jeff let me know the domain name was brokered by Kris Hou, a domain consultant working at Saw.
I will keep an eye on the Whois record to see who acquired the domain name. At the time of publication, the domain name is still pending transfer and is showing the Saw-customized Efty landing page.
Great domain I tried for years to buy this one. Congrats to all on this one
Thanks for keeping the price a secret,
it’s now off-market & u get to enjoy your millions.
Samer
That’s cool.
If Cool.com didn’t sell for low-to-mid 8 figures, buyer got a deal IMO. $5-10 million is a good deal, $1-4 million is a steal.
Huh? Why would the name sell for 8 figures? Has been for sale forever and I’m fairly sure they were looking for around $1million.
Agreed, the deal could happen in $1mm – $1.5mm range.
Ty Snoop and everyone following cool.com
God bless you all.
I hate when they keep the price a secret.
Samer
Mentioned this before, read about cool.com when I first got into domaining, in a book. From what I read, original registrant turned down $8 million in cash plus $30 million in stock for it, and the rest was “history” until Elequa or FMA got it.
Doubt anyone was ever offering $38million John. It is a good name but more of a trophy for domainers than a name endusers would want.
Very few co’s would want to brand as “Cool”.
You are mistaken. And this was many years ago.
You probably heard about it on Fox News John. People make up stuff like this all the time. You don’t get a genuine offer of $38million then sell for $1million.
You are so clueless. This happened when it would have been normal for people to think they could refuse an offer like that or hold out for more later until things changed in a way they were not expecting.
John, 99% of those claims were completely fake, made up nonsense to get in the news.
Below…
You just like to keep doubling down, don’t you. I’m only replying for the common good. Venture capital money was being handed out like candy. Some companies were offered far more than $8 million cash even when they even had essentially no business idea or plan to make money. A friend of mine was with one of those and used to joke about it. And it would not have been hard for some companies to offer the huge stock pile on top then either. No doubt many of the latter eventually went bust, but only after they had been in the position to offer huge amounts of stock. You never answered about where you are from, but I seriously doubt you are from the US, so you might want to rethink thinking you are such an expert on how things were back then. And no doubt some domainer big shots know everything about the cool.com case and just haven’t said anything publicly.
It was just a bunch of nonsense to get a news story, free advertising to try and sell the domain. Nobody rejects $38 million then sells for 3% of that.
If you want to believe it that is on you.
Are you stupid? And once again, I’m not replying because of what a troll you are, but only for the greater good and anyone who reads all this.
It’s not rocket science. Once upon a time there was a great big “bubble.” Money was flowing like water. Rational people could believe they could hold out for more than $8m + equity, etc. Then the bubble burst and people realized they would be lucky to get $1m or $5m for something they previously had to beat back higher offers for.
And for the benefit of the domaining community:
Judge for yourselves whether the story of cool.com is fiction or not. It’s all recorded in the official Domain Names For Dummies book. I read that book after I first got into domains in 2001. It was a great read. Rick Schwartz is also prominently in the book as well.
So read that book and then judge for yourselves the following:
1. Were the authors from GreatDomains.com so incompetent and gullible that they didn’t do any decent due diligence to verify the story of Cool.com?
2. How about the significant mention of Rick Schwartz in the book? Any problem there?
Trolls get a clue, everyone else open your mouth if you know the real story about what’s accurate and true.
And my friend used to talk about how insane it was that this tiny little operation got something like $15 million in cash when they didn’t even have any plan to make money. Back then people could also charge $250,000 just to make a website that I’ll bet wasn’t even as good as what you can do with insta-tools like WP and Wix now. He was trying to go into that himself because of $ figures like that, but he wound up becoming a SQL Server administrator after the bubble burst.
Let’s see what this years long John-obsessed troll “Snoopy” does now…
Later…
John, Greatdomains was mothballed not long after, it wasn’t a credible organisation.
What you are saying is regurgitated media fluff. Yes you read it in a “dummies” book, great. Saying it is “official” doesn’t mean anything because the actual source was just making stuff up to get publicity.
Right, surely you must know what you’re talking about.
And this report about cool.com therefore must be pure fiction:
https://www.zdnet.com/article/cool-com-most-valuable-domain-name/
And this mention of it in 2002:
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/web-growth-seen-revitalizing-tech-spending
But the biggest scandal of course is a guy named Raymond Hackney blogging about it too. Anyone ever heard of a Raymond Hackney? Let’s see what Ray said (see next comment):
Now being brokered, 20 years ago Cool.com had a lot going on
February 6, 2020 by Raymond Hackney
https://tldinvestors.com/2020/02/cool-com.html
But thanks for setting me straight, Snoopy dog. Without you, I would have wandered aimlessly believing a lie. Everyone owes you a debt of gratitude.
Disclaimer:
As before, I have not replied because of what a troll you are. I have replied for the greater good and the cause. Unfortunately, some trolls can actually have a real impact on the industry and the cause of everyone involved, and your kind of trolling is that kind of trolling. Hence one has to respond if one doesn’t want to allow the kind of consequences your kind of trolling can inflict.
Okay let’s see you just come in a double down on the story of cool.com being nothing but a lie, Snoop. Knock yourself out, though I may be done here myself and not come back…
John, the story was nonsense, this stuff doesn’t get fact. Many of the actual domain sales from that period of time were dubious, not even worth talking about people big noting about “offers not taken” from that period. People used to make stuff up to get publicity.
It sold for for a tiny fraction of the claimed offer, most people would be able to read between the lines based on that.
Maybe you should read everything next time because if you had you would see that apparently the cool.com guy was required to reject the $38m offer at the time. It’s not that fake stories don’t exist, just that there is no credible claim or evidence this was one except for you continuing to double down on your own speculation about it.
Take it up with Raymond Hackney. You can find him over at TheDomains.com or his own blog TLDinvestors.com. I’m done with you here. I’ve done my part for the cause. Knock yourself out.
Maybe you should read everything next time because if you had you would see that apparently the cool.com guy was required to reject the $38m offer at the time. It’s not that fake stories don’t exist, just that there is no credible claim or evidence this was one except for you continuing to double down on your own speculation about it.
Take it up with Raymond Hackney. You can find him over at TheDomains.com or his own blog TLDinvestors.com. I’m done with you here. I’ve done my part for the cause. Knock yourself out.