Back in September of 2015, GoDaddy was brokering the LA.com and SV.com domain names on behalf of a media company called MediaNews Group. Earlier this year, it was revealed that GoDaddy and eNaming brokered the sale of SV.com for an undisclosed figure. Later, LA.com was acquired by the publisher of the LA Times for an undisclosed amount, as reported by Domain Name Wire.
Last night, George Kirikos uncovered the purchase price of LA.com, which he shared on Twitter:
Tribune Publishing $TPUB paid a mere $1.2 million for the https://t.co/GYgz0ByJdo domain name https://t.co/fJc5tQeVoJ (p. 14) #steal #WTF
— George Kirikos (@GeorgeKirikos) May 7, 2016
According to the Tribune Publishing Company’s quarterly report, the company paid $1,200,000 for the LA.com domain name. On page 14 of the filing, the company said, “[I]n February 2016, the Company purchased the domain name LA.com for $1.2 million and has classified this purchase as an indefinite-lived intangible asset.”
In my opinion, $1.2 million for LA.com seems like a very good purchase price. I am sure GoDaddy worked hard to find the buyer for this domain name, and the Tribune Company seems like the perfect suitor for it. LA.com still appears to be under development, and it will be interesting to see how the Tribune Publishing Company uses the domain name.
Also interestingly, it appears the company may have paid an additional $100,000 for an undisclosed domain name or multiple domain names. On page 30, the company wrote, “Net cash used for investing activities totaled $4.8 million in the three months ended March 27, 2016 and included $1.3 million used to purchase domain names including LA.com.” If they paid $1.2 million for LA.com and $1.3 million in total for domain names, it looks like they spent another $100,000 on one or more domain names. I doubt we will learn what that extra $100k entails, but interesting to read about.
That is straight robbery. Congrats to the buyers.
Casey, It’s a slow market and seven figures is a lot of money for any domain name. the success of the sale all depends on how much profit the seller made from his original purchase. That would be an interesting tidbit if discovered.
“It’s a slow market and seven figures is a lot of money for any domain name.”
Why do you believe it is slow? Interested to hear why somebody actually holding seven-figure domains would say this.
I get a lot of interest in my names but notice many people are holding on to their money. It maybe because of uncertainty in the markets, the economy or that maybe it is an election year here in the states. Either way, you can look at DNjournal and see it is a slow time for big ticket domain names than in the past.
Someone reminded me about this tweet I wrote to the LA Times in September: https://twitter.com/DInvesting/status/643853901662449667
@latimestech You guys should buy LA .com, which just went up for sale and is being brokered by GoDaddy: https://www.domaininvesting.com/godaddy-brokering-la-com-and-sv-com/
Looks like they have a number of names they’re carrying – the few that had the most recent updates include:
nwmarket.com
hoytv.com
searchhomessd.com
dnews.com
tribpub.guru
lmtribune.com
So – that’s likely what makes up the other $100,000.
Other names I found for them include souldoforlando.com, fsbors.com, localprintsolutions.com, comicspage.mobi, jumble.mobi, puzzlekingdom.com, tigerextra.com, columbiatribune.com, lmtribune.com, and blend757.com.