Domain broker James Booth has been operating his domain brokerage under the Phenom.com branding since mid-2019. About a month ago, I noticed that Phenom.com had begun forwarding to DomainBooth.com, and I privately learned that the domain name had been sold. At the time, I did not know who acquired the domain name, but I can now report that a HR company called Phenom People made the six figure acquisition.
If you visit Phenom.com, you can see the Phenom People website has been migrated to that domain name. In fact, if you visit PhenomPeople.com, you can see that domain name is now forwarding to Phenom.com. According to its website, Phenom is a global Human Resources technology company. It’s not just a domain name rebrand either. You can see the Phenom People logo has changed, and the company is simply known as Phenom.
I asked James Booth if he could comment about the acquisition price. Unfortunately, he was unable to share the precise sale price of Phenom.com, but he did tell me he “sold because of the markets and 6 figures was very useful right now.” The brokerage founded by James can be found at DomainBooth.com. I assume James made out well on the deal, and Phenom People was able to make a great brand and domain name upgrade.
According to CrunchBase, Phenom (as it is now known) has raised nearly $60 million in funding. The most recent round of funding was a $30 million Series C round, announced in January of this year. The funding round was reported in Venture Beat. When I read the article in mid-January, I reached out to Phenom VP of Marketing Jonathan Dale to see if his company would have an interest in buying Phenoms.com, a domain name my company owns. I did not hear back (self promotion – Phenoms.com is still for sale via Dan.com).
I do not see a press release from Phenom announcing the rebrand, but if I see one and the company shares additional details about the rebranding, I will share an update.
Although I knew about the sale of Phenom.com for a month, I want to thank Aamir for pointing this out to me now that the domain name is being used and the rebrand has been completed.
I figured James would sell Phenom.com eventually.
Phenom(enal) sale James.
Elliot — your related story concerning your Phenoms reminded me of what happened last year when the recent corp buyer of Valley(.)com passed on my plural Valleys. Curiously, I received a low-ball, anonymous $x,xxx offer for it . . . just a few months later. Chuckles.
It seems like if you are in domain sales, don’t build your brand around an amazing generic domain, You will eventually sell it and have to rebrand.
Yep
That’s not necessarily a bad problem to have.
If someone wants to pay me enough money to buy one of my domain names forcing me to rebrand, I am more than happy to do it.
Had the same thought Elliot. Every one of my domains is for sale … at the right price. 🙂