A few weeks ago, I read an article about a company called Firefly, which had just raised $21.5 million in seed funding. I knew the matching Firefly.com domain was forwarding to MediaOptions.com and likely being brokered by Media Options, and I visited Firefly.com to see if this company acquired the matching domain name before the funding news hit the press.
When I visited Firefly.com, I could see that the domain name had been sold, but the buyer was not the company with the new round of funding. Firefly.com was forwarding to a website for Firefly Aerospace, a totally different company that has raised $21.6 million in funding, according to Crunchbase.
When I reached out to Andrew to confirm the sale of Firefly.com, he asked me to hold off on reporting it since the deal was not yet complete. He mentioned that the sale was set to close on January 15th.
In a tweet this morning, Andrew confirmed that his company sold Firefly.com:
To all of those companies who who let their ego get in the way of their success, https://t.co/kYqWoM4yn1 is SOLD! #OffTheMarketForever You might as well rebrand now… The good news is we have other killer brands for you like https://t.co/3g3aFVfzs0 or https://t.co/sl1JYqCaNJ!
— Andrew Rosener (@andrewrosener) January 15, 2019
If you do a Google search (or a variety of other searches in different business directories), you can see that there are many companies called FireFly. Andrew commented to me about how many were trying to buy the domain name:
“Firefly.com was the single most popular domain we had in terms of number of inbound unsolicited offers. We had 4 companies that were making serious 6 figure offers for the name including the fast growing advertising & transportation data company FireflyOn.com, but ultimately, only one company stepped up and bought this incredible domain. Now it is more than likely off the market forever. I guess FireflyOn will have to use some of their funding for a rebrand!”
I can’t share the price to acquire Firefly.com, but it will likely be a decision the company doesn’t regret. In addition to the trust factor of having an exact match .com domain name, the company will not have to worry about misdirected emails or confused website visitors. In addition, should the company ever rebrand or decide to divest the asset, there will be plenty of prospective buyers who would covet the domain name.
Great one today, thank you Ellliot!
The best part: Media Options acquired it less than two years ago from the Booth Brothers, who got it from Microsoft. Without that “flip” the current owner stood very little chance. 😀
According to Google, lifespan of a Firefly is 2 months.
“you might as well re-brand now”
haha..love it.
Why sell so low if it had so much interest?
What makes you think it was sold “so low?” The price was not published.
Great sale ! congrats too all parties involved !
> had just raised $21.5 million
> has raised $21.6 million
> a totally different company
Does not look like a totally different to me, only $100k of difference.
Yes, the amount raised by each company is similar, but they are totally different companies.
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