In early May, Andy Booth announced on Twitter that he acquired the Universal.com domain name:
There are still some absolutely mega domains out there, untapped, or just waiting for an investor to time their approach.
New pick-up:https://t.co/Yj9Sfv11eC
— Andy Booth (@360) May 2, 2021
Universal.com is a fantastic domain name, and while there are many brands that would likely want to own Universal.com, one brand stands out. Of course, that brand would be Universal Studios and its various associated Universal brands, including NBCUniversal and Universal Theme Parks. In fact, I was a bit surprised the company hadn’t already owned the asset when Andy acquired it for what must have been a substantial amount of money.
As it turns out, Andy did not own Universal.com for very long. Universal.com transferred from Uniregistry under privacy to MarkMonitor. I was able to confirm the domain name was sold in a deal that transacted today. Not surprisingly, the buyer is Universal Studios, legally known as Universal City Studios, a division of NBCUniversal.
I connected with Andy to discuss the sale, and while he told me he cannot share the sale price of Universal.com, he let me know the domain name was brokered by Andrew Miller. Commenting on the deal, Andy had this to say:
“Andrew was a very direct and effective facilitator and I am delighted with the sale. He definitely hit a home run. It was a great reflection of where the market is today for premium one word .com domains and Universal were alert to this.”
As you may recall, Andrew was involved in another deal involving NBCUniversal when he put together a deal for the Fairway.com and Betcast.com domain names.
Commenting on the Universal.com transaction, Andrew shared this with me:
“I can confirm that we sold Universal.com, in a win win for the seller and buyer. While there was interest from others, I am so excited that, as reflected in WHOIS, the buyer is everyone’s favorite theme park and studio”. It is an important asset for them and I am ecstatic that is where the domain will now be forever”
While the deal is under a strict NDA, my guess is the domain name was sold for seven figures. I don’t have the specifics on this deal, but it’s an educated guess. Should NBCUniversal unexpectedly report the acquisition in a subsequent SEC filing, I will be sure to share what I learn.
I am amazed Universal Studios did not try to obtain the domain via UDRP over the years, as they would at least seem to have some potential trademark claim for it.
i thought ernest borgnine was dead.
“While the deal is under a strict NDA, my guess is the domain name was sold for seven figures.”
Doubt it.
Don’t really care.
He said that knowing James like to sell names for way less than most top domainers would. WIN WIN situation might mean less than figure we expect.
I don’t know why the booth brothers sell solid premium names for less the value but, for sure they want quick returns and don’t care about making good 7 figures steady . They know how to find and acquire good names but their selling strategy is not it .If this name sells for less than 9m up to 8 figures, it is a good deal for buyer .
Amen to that. I dont think 7 figures is where its at. $20,000,000 all day long.
If my DogGroomers.com sale was private, and somebody speculated that I sold the domain name for six figures, you probably would have said the same thing (and been wrong).
I agree, I never expected you to sell it for that high. I would have guessed $20,000.
I don’t think there is much point thinking up hypothetical arguments.
In my view you tend to say 7 figures on every second one word .com that sells, even though very few actually sell for that kid of money. We now have a tonne of data with reporting plus all the SEC filings, a big chunk of sales are being reported. 100+ one word .com’s sold this year and only half a dozen made 7 figures.
Some of the names I recently speculated to be 7 figures were Flow.com, Home.com, and Teams.com. Do you disagree with me on those?
Regarding Blade.com, I said “ I would imagine this might have also hit the seven figure mark.” I was wrong about that. I can’t think of other guesses where I was wrong.
Flow.com was sold for exactly $1million. Teams.com I think you are way too high. Home.com could have got 7 figs.
Flow.com and Home.com are not comparable to Universal.com.
Congrats to Andy, continues to impress year after year!
Big surprise they didn’t have it already.
considering what their 2% stake in uber would have been for uber.com, it was most definitely a 1-5MM transaction… they understand the value of domain names. snoopy is just jealous he didn’t own it… he prefers gTLDs. in fact, i’m pretty sure snoopy doesn’t own any valuable domains… just comments on twitter and blogs to get away from his wife.
You are wrong. “Snoopy” owns at least several very good domain names.
they’re all io’s and co’s 😂😂😂
Nope, Snoopy has an amazing portfolio of one word dotcoms, one of the absolute best in the business
Definitely a minimum seven-figure sale especially considering who the seller was. Can’t understand why Snoopy would be surprised they got at least seven figures for this domain name. Congrats to the sale.
The best domain names are still very undervalued in my opinion.
Snoopy, i don’t know you but in one way you are right. Not all 7 figures. Some could be 8, MUCH more likely than 6-ps and I know the actual numbers obviously.
There’s been a huge shift with domain names finally getting the momentum they deserve after the pandemic pushed society into the internet-en mass.
Societal and economic survival are the key motivators now that states and countries are starting to open back up with a reality that the game has fundamentally changed.
This is a huge sale for several reasons for me. Our industry may finally be getting its rudder back and is steering in the right direction not because of anything we did but because the market of supply and demand is headed back our way. Sales like this are not just good for generics but all domain names.
After 28 years in this business, this is a great omen for me.
We all can agree–this pandemic virus issue has brought the” Domain” business right in front of the businesses’ eyeballs.
Finally the business owners have woken up that they need a domain name to be part of the ecommerce world.