In June of this year, FTD Companies filed for bankruptcy. The company, which has long been associated with the floral business, was also involved in the general gift and personalization business. The company has operated brands such as Shari’s Berries, Personal Creations, Gifts.com, and others.
According to an article on Yahoo Finance, Gifts.com was sold as part of a court approved auction for $18 million. This was not simply a domain name sale. In fact, it includes an entire line of business, along with the associated domain names. Here’s an excerpt from the article:
“The transaction enriches PlanetArt with a full complement of talented gifting specialist staff in merchandising, development, design, operations and marketing and with multiple well-known brands—PersonalCreations.com, RedEnvelope.com and Gifts.com.”
From what I understand, a company called PlanetArt placed its $18 million bid as a stalking horse bid. When a higher bid did not materialize, it was selected as the winning bidder. The bankruptcy court approved the deal.
In my opinion, $18 million for the entire business seems like a great deal for the buyer. I think Gifts.com as a standalone domain name could be valued into the seven figures or perhaps higher. Add in the goodwill, customer data, and everything else that comes with the sale, and it seems like a fantastic deal for the buyer. There are also legacy brands like RedEnvelope.com and PersonalCreations.com, which also have value.
Using DomainIQ, I was able to see that FTD owns Personalize.com, which is another valuable domain name. Personalize.com does not currently resolve to an active website. I am not sure if this domain name is included in the $18 million sale.
There have been different auctions held for different parts of the FTD business. In fact, 1-800-Flowers placed the $20.5 million winning bid for the Shari’s Berries brand. I believe this package includes the Berry.com and Berries.com domain names.
It’s easy for me to say the buyer got a great deal with the Gifts.com purchase, but I presume the seller’s representatives made a substantial effort to field the best bid and nothing higher materialized.
Thanks to John Berryhill for helping me uncover some details.
Gift.com was purchased years ago by JC Penney’s and still goes to their gift department. Great way to bring additional traffic is with additional relevant domain names. (they’re still in business)