RetailMeNot Acquires Sale.com Domain Name via Media Options

RetailMeNot.comIn mid-December of 2013,  Media Options listed Sale.com for sale in its domain name newsletter with an asking price of $1,500,000. It was described as “one of the top 10 domains in the world!” Based on the recently updated Whois records, it appears that the domain name has been acquired by RetailMeNot, Inc.

RetailMeNot is an Austin, Texas-based publicly traded company that publishes coupons, promo codes, and special offers from popular retailers and businesses. Retail Me Not trades on the NASDAQ market under the stock symbol SALE, which might be one reason the Sale.com domain name was of interest to RMN.

After noticing the Whois change this morning, I reached out to Media Options CEO Andrew Rosener for a comment. Unfortunately, the sale is subject to a non-disclosure agreement, and I can not comment on it. Both parties are happy with the deal,” he told me. The sale price on this transaction has not been disclosed, although it is possible the company will report the price in a future SEC filing.

Prior to the sale of Sale.com, the domain name had a “for sale” landing page advertising the listing. At the moment, Sale.com does not resolve to any website. Here are a few guesses on how the company will use the Sale.com domain name:

  • Sister site of Retail Me Not focusing on sales
  • Flash sale website
  • Corporate website for RMN
  • Forwarding the domain name to main website

Congratulations to all parties on the deal. I think the low seven figure asking price was fair, and RetailMeNot struck a good deal.

Elliot Silver
Elliot Silver
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 closed eight figures in deals. 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 | Facebook | LinkedIn
    • I agree Tony this name was listed for sale only a couple of weeks ago and already sold. Great names like this don’t sell this fast unless they are under valued. Quick way for brokers to line their pockets with an easy 100 grand and on to the next name.

    • Yes it’s possible it may have been just great timing as well with the seller pricing the domain at a great price looking to make a quick sale before year end. And the buyer knowing that domains like this don’t come up very often made an intelligent decision and probably pulled the trigger quickly to also take advantage of the write off for the 2013 tax year.

    • I’m sure the owner had plenty of time before the day it was marketed to determine a price.
      If it sold fast, the broker did his job and did it well. How many +$1m names sell in a year and how fast ?
      There’s a handful (if that) of buyers who’ll go that deep on any domain name.
      Congrats Andrew

    • “If it sold fast, the broker did his job and did it well. ”

      ….or the domains valuation was placed to low by the broker. Million dollar names don’t sell in 2 weeks unless the name is seriously undervalued. ebet.com sells for 1.35 million, silver.com sells for 875k, fix.com sells for 850k, hot.com sells for 850k but an amazing name like sale.com only sells for probably between 1 million and 1.3 million. You can call it whatever you want but I call it Undervalued!

    • IF the price was recommended by the broker, the seller determines whether to accept the price of not.

      The seller did not have to accept the offer

      Now you bring up a bunch of other domains that were sold over what time frames exactly ? Do you know ? Do you know how long it took the broker to market them or how long they were for sale? How many previous offers in the $1m ballpark did those domains receive ? What were the circumstances of the sellers ? Did they need the cash ?

      You blame the broker for a low sale . . .bottomline is the SELLER is the only one who accepts an offer or determines a price.

      A 3 letter first name sold a week or so ago for mid 5 figures. Ridiculous I say but it sold and it sold fast. The seller need the money. You want to blame the broker still ? Some sellers don’t have the luxury of sitting around and waiting and some sellers have sat around and waited (owning a domain) for years . . . and today might be the day they want to sell.

  1. The last time I checked, the domain market was still completely non-liquid. There is no central exchange where you can go and sell your shares. To say something was “undervalued” or “undersold” is foolish when you are talking about any sale of this size.

    Our job as a broker is to make a market. To bring liquidity where none exists. When any broker closes a deal of this magnitude, they have done a great job and anyone saying otherwise has likely never been involved in a deal of this magnitude and doesn’t understand the complexity of such a domain sale, the valuation of such an asset or the factors that needed to be accounted for.

  2. It’s ridiculous for anybody to criticize the broker for the sales price without knowing the details of what took place. Congratulations to Andrew. I assume the seller was satisfied with the price they received or they would have rejected the offer.

  3. Agree with Jeff. The seller being willing to take a low price is not a criticism of the broker.

    The domain sold for much less than it should and the seller will kick his/herself in a few years.

    • The willingness to accept a particular offer often depends largely upon one’s desire or requirement for the cash now, not at some point in the future.

      It may be that the seller needed to pay some obligations, or is interested in getting involved in a new business or investment opportunity where time was of the essence.

      Or perhaps the seller is suffering from some significant health issue that is costly to treat but not covered by insurance. If not treated, the seller may not even be around “in a few years”.

      So there are many reasons why a seller would be “willing to take a low price” for a domain name. Whatever the reasons are in this case, congratulations to all involved in this sale!

  4. Another fresh significant sale for you, which just came out (I’ve just got their press release):
    Today LUXOTTICA, the Italian world leader in the manufacturing and distribution of eyewear and sunglasses, has purchased GLASSES.com.
    The acquisition includes both the domain and the business on it.
    I know the company very well, and I think this deal can be of interest for the domain community.

    Milan (Italy), January 7, 2014 –
    Luxottica Group S.p.A. (MTA: LUX; NYSE: LUX), a leader in the design,
    manufacture, distribution and sale of fashion, luxury and sports eyewear, announces today it has entered into an asset purchase agreement to acquire glasses.com from WellPoint Inc. subject to customary closing conditions.
    “Today we are announcing the agreement to acquire a technology which we believe will benefit the overall eyewear sector and the optical industry in North America, a crucial market for our group and one we remain
    strongly committed to” said Andrea Guerra, Chief Executive Officer at Luxottica. “The acquisition will function as a starting point to shape an independent, digital platform through which the North American market can
    and will access the unique domain, innovating the shopping experience and improving the quality of products and services available to consumers.”
    The eyewear industry in North America is estimated today to be a USD 35.5 billion market with the opportunity to grow to USD 44-47 billion by 2020 according to Vision Council and Company estimates.
    Demographic factors, such as an increase in the number of individuals needing vision correction products, the projected increase in eye exams each year, and the greater penetration of premium eyewear are all
    expected to drive continued growth.
    Luxottica believes that the investment in technology and the development of an accessible digital platform for the North American trade are crucial next steps in developing the market to its full potential.
    By investing in online innovation and providing accessibility to independent practitioners, Luxottica can offer both the
    doctor and the consumer a unique seamlessly integrated, superior experience.
    The acquisition of glasses.com will not have a material impact on Luxottica’s consolidated financial statement.
    The agreement is subject to customary closing conditions and the transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2014.

  5. Congratulations to the parties involved. I know Andrew works hard and I agree with him and others regarding the sale. It is silly to criticize the broker for closing a deal “too quickly”. I am sure that the seller had ample opportunity to accept or reject whatever offer they received.

    If you had owned it and would have accepted only 10x or whatever the domain eventually sold for, then you should have made an offer on it yourself, and spared the rest of us your sour-grapes complaints.

    Incidentally, on Dec. 11th, Retail-Me-Not filed a prospectus to offer 6,267,137 shares of its stock, some of which is from early investors/officers. SALE is looking to raise about $52,000,000 from the 2,000,000 new shares they are offering. From the 424b: “We intend to use the net proceeds from this offering for working capital and other general corporate purposes, including developing new technologies, funding capital expenditures or making investments in or acquisitions of other businesses, solutions or technologies.”

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