Microsoft Acquires Office.com Domain Name
In a private move, Microsoft has acquired the domain name Office.com for a yet to be disclosed sum. Perhaps this figure will be disclosed in a future SEC filing.
Sometime between May 19 and May 23, 2009, a company called Marksmen, a Microsoft contractor according to ComputerWorld, took possession of the domain name. On August 4th, the domain name was transferred to Microsoft’s account, according to Whois information.
There is a note on the Office.com website advising customers that the company formerly operating on Office.com will no longer be operating on that domain name:
As you know from the recent email we sent you, we will be transitioning the operation of your Virtual Office account to ContactOffice.com during the next 30 days.
As part of this transition, on Monday, June 29, 2009, we changed email addresses in the office.com domain to ones in the contactoffice.com domain.
That said, it looks like Microsoft made a smart strategic move and will begin to use Office.com for it’s Microsoft Office suite of products in lieu of its current office.microsoft.com url. It will be interesting to see if there will be any significant changes to the operation of the website and interactivity on it, or if its simply a branding decision to enhance the company’s online presence.
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About The Author: Elliot Silver is an Internet entrepreneur and publisher of DomainInvesting.com. Elliot is also the founder and President of Top Notch Domains, LLC, a company that has sold seven figures worth of domain names in the last five years. Please read the DomainInvesting.com Terms of Use page for additional information about the publisher, website comment policy, disclosures, and conflicts of interest.Reach out to Elliot: Twitter | Google + | Facebook | Email
owen frager
Will be interesting to see who bought server.com. Dell has cloud computing.com. Great to see corporations REALLY start to get it. There is a movement in that direction. Just sad to see the visionaries who launched Internet Explorer get so lost off their own trial for so many years. In hiring away from Google and Yahoo and the CEO from a software company that had to compete with MS- these are the kind of changes that will continue to result from different minded thinking.
Rob Chandler
Great move by microsoft… its amazing to see even the most advanced computer software and hardware companies late to the domain name game but here is living proof!
Like one of my favorite sayings though… “its never too late” 😉
It seems you can’t lose with a good Generic Domain!
Tim Davids
My money says they bought this due to open office and may go open source just to hit goog.
Kate
Check out the Office Facebook page for Office news and tons of helpful resources to help you use all the features of your Office applications. You can post your questions to the Wall and get help directly from Microsoft!
http://www.facebook.com/office
Cheers,
Kate
MSFT Office Outreach Team
Jeff
better domains:
eroduction.com
stumers.com
softwarezones.com
fairpage.com
healthyboard.com
Elliot
@ Jeff
Better than what?