Early this morning CentralNic published an press release Press Release saying they had sold $1 Million dollars in unidentified domain names and would be using will use the cash to buy more premium web domain names.
In the release CentralNic says they own around 20,000 premium domain names that they started acquiring in the 2nd half of 2014.
This morning the domain name GB.com, which they own has changed registrant email address to: [email protected]
That registrant email change very likely indicates the two letter .com domain name has been sold.
Did it sell for $1 Million is the question or was there another sale or sales recently as well?
The article wasn’t very clear IMO because it talks about “sales” being plural but this line from the article “is set to receive US$1mln after it struck a premium domain name sales agreement yesterday (June 30).” may relate to one sale also?
There is also a podcast type interview with Chief executive Ben Crawford here and at about the 1:45 mark he states “we signed a contract yesterday for $1 million” but the audio wasn’t the clearest and no mention of the domain name.
The press release continued with:
“The money is payable over coming months and will be used to acquire further premium domain names to augment those already in the Premium Domains names business it launched in the second half of 2014.
Chief executive Ben Crawford told investors: “This latest sale of premium domain names not only validates our trading business, but underscores the value of our domain name inventory, with in excess of 20,000 premium domains.
“We will continue to actively acquire new premium domains where we see real medium term trading value, while also selling those domains which we believe have reached maximum market potential.”
Since last year, the firm has acquired around 4,000 domain names on top of existing inventories and has sold domains at prices ranging from US$3,000 to hundreds of thousands of dollars, it said.”
So it is not clear exactly how much GB.com likely sold for and if that is the domain they were referring to, but it is likely close to $1 million, if not $1 Million and may be for just GB.com. One would have to believe they sold more than 1 domain with the “this latest sale of premium domain names” but other terms and statements lead one to believe just one domain sold.
Here is a screen shot of the whois change:
GB is often the acronym popular to Great Britain but is also the stock ticker for Greatbatch Inc., and Gardner Bender is a large company that uses the GB term and I’m sure countless other potential users and buyers. We will find out over time if the buyer is an end user or a domain name investor.
