Welcome to Domain Movers which is a series that digs deep and detects domain movements by large corporations and companies around the web! These are often early indicators of upcoming new brands, services and more. The domain names have been either recently acquired in the domain name aftermarket, private purchases, new domain registrations and more.
Here we go:
CSC Corporate Domains, Inc. has registered the domain name SpeakingColors.com for a currently unknown client. The domain name was registered before but expired at GoDaddy on 2/16/2015.
FreshNewWay.com a domain name that was registered on 10/7/2014 under whois privacy at eNom is now showing a “”Scott Howard” of Van Winkle Pearce in whois. That is a marketing agency. The domain name is being used for Home2 Suites By Hilton. “A fresh new way 2 think about extended stay” and has been since at least December 2014. The domain appears to be getting ready to transfer to MarkMonitor and likely join up with other Hilton owned domains. I’m never a fan of a marketing company showing as the “owner” of a domain, as the company who hired them is really the one owning the domain and whois records should reflect that if it’s the case.
This was the first time I had heard about Home2 Suites, but it is “a mid-tier, all-suite extended-stay hotel featuring contemporary accommodations and customizable guest room design” according to Wikipedia
Con-Way, which is a trucking company has registered the domain name TrueToTheTroops.com on 2/25/2015 and has now used it to redirect visitors to a website on the domain True2Blue.com focused on providing truck driving jobs for Military Veterans.
Con-Way does not own the domain name TrueToBlue.com, but it’s for sale for $299 with a buy it now at GoDaddy and would be a wise investment for the company to own it.
Flook.com which was reported sold by DomainNameSales.com in February 2015 for $30,000 has been acquired by a currently unknown company that uses brand protection services MarkMonitor. Although whois records currently only show generic whois data DNStination Inc., we likely will find out who the buyers were shortly! New domain name servers have been set to a hosting provider and I expect a site to go live pretty soon.
Microsoft Corporation has registered the domain names MicrosoftZoom.com | .net | .org . I have been “on watch” since Microsoft announced that they will be naming a new browser to replace Internet Explorer and they stated they would use Microsoft in the name! I expect whatever new brand name they do choose, they will own the EMD (exact match domain) without the Microsoft brand name also. So if this is the new browser name, I would expect them to spend the money and acquire Zoom.com. Could Microsoft Zoom be the new web browser name?
Zoom.com appears to be “able” to be acquired! There hasn’t been a website on the domain name since 2013 when Zoom Inc. owned the domain name. Zoom Technologies is a holding company with a subsidiary in the US under Portables Unlimited LLC.
There has been no updates to whois records since 9/7/2012 on Zoom.com so this tells me at this point, the domain has not been sold currently but again, it holds potential!
Microsoft did have Microsoft “Internet Explorer Zoom” which allows you to zoom in using the browser and they owned Zoom.it but that is no longer associated with Microsoft. In the end, I wouldn’t see Microsoft registering these domains for zoom it now, so they have some “new” reason for it, something we just do not know right now.
Microsoft also registered the domain names MicrosoftCredits.com .net, MicrosoftEarn.com .net, MsftCredits.com .net and MsftEarn.com .net
Kimberly Clark Corporation appears to be getting ready for a new Viva paper towels marketing campaign of some sort. They have registered the domain names. CheatWeek.com, CheatOnYourPapertowel.com, CheatForAWeek.com, CheatWithViva.com and CheatWithVivaVantage.com
Viva Vantage is a new paper towel for the company or as they call them “towels”. It was voted product of the year in a 2015 comsumer survey according to a badge displayed on VivaTowels.com.
Bauer Media Pty Limited has registered the domain name FootballUltra.com
Yik Yak Inc. has acquired the EMD YikYak.com from Marketing Architects Inc. as first reported by DomainPros.com . There were a couple things in that article that I do not agree on.. “I’m pleased to say that within the past week, the company seems to have finalized a deal to acquire the domain yikyak.com” stated the article published on 3/27/2015. Unless they have insider info, according to whois records, YikYak.com went into privacy protection at GoDaddy on November 19, 2014 and this is likely when the domain was acquired.
The second thing I didn’t agree on in the article was “I should imagine that the previous owners had accepted a four or five figure price for the domain name.” If this is true, Marketing Architects left a huge pile of money on the table! I would expect the sale to be at minimum of six figures and if the perfect storm took place (which it has the indigence) and the past owner asked for 7 figures, Yik Yak Inc. has the funding to be able to pay it! It is the companies name and they are heavily funded!
I did reach out directly to the seller of YikYak.com but received the a reply of “At this time we prefer not to provide any information about this exchange.” This is often a sign of a NDA that was likely put in place at the time of the purchase.
Periscope.com which is behind a newly launched app mentioned on CNN has actually owned the domain name for a long time. Based on the research I did, the domain switched to the current whois “owner” (company name) on 3/24/2010 .. almost exactly 5 years ago. The domain was listed as owned by Periscope Marketing Communications and a Perry Johnson prior. Perry Johnson is still the current owner but the company name is listed just as “Periscope”… Perry Johnson has owned it for as long as whois history records date back.
A Mashable.com article today referenced: “Twitter’s new live-streaming application” at the top of the article but then later mentioned in the same article “its close tie-up with Twitter”. So it is unclear right now if Twitter is behind the Periscope.com domain and app.
DanceOnDemand.com has been sold by DomainMarket.com for $15,000. The domain name was registered in 2009 for $7.50 by owner Mike Mann. The buyer is currently unknown as this is a fresh sale.
Pfizer Inc. has registered the domain name MyRizo.com and .net
H.J. Heinz Company registered the domain name PartnerUpAndWin.com
BBY Solutions, Inc. has registered a couple new domain names and those two similar domains are BestBuyVPOS.com and BestBuyVPSP.com . Virtual Point Of Sale? Virtual Point Secure Portal? I guessed on the last one… but VPOS is an acronym for the first one.
Daiwa Corporate Advisory Limited didn’t feel the need to sell its domain asset CBCF.com which is managed by MarkMonitor and simply let it expire. DropCatch.com grabbed the domain on the drop. The domain had been registered since 1998! The domain was owned by Close Brothers Corporate Finance Ltd since at least 2001 (oldest whois history record) CBCF was the acronym for the company. Daiwa acquired Close Brothers in 2009 for $114 Million according to this Reuters article.
Pfizer Inc. must be getting the same advice from MarkMonitor or they felt the same way as Daiwa because Pfizer simply let the domain name SamplesDirect.com expire. That domain was also grabbed by DropCatch.com during the drop!
Overstock.com, Inc. has acquired the domain name T0.com (letter/Number). The domain name was registered with Moniker prior and using DomainSponsor domain parking. Maybe Overstock is going to rebrand to T0.com now after trying and failing with O.co! (Kidding).
ChromeTheGame.com has been acquired by Google Inc. in some fashion. I say some fashion, because anytime a trademarked term (chrome) is in play, the domain may have been acquired by legal means. The domain was under privacy protection at Network Solutions prior to transferring to MarkMonitor under Google Inc as the owners. It appears the domain name redirected to Techland.pl.
Techland was associated with a game called Chrome, which was released in 2003, well prior to the Google Chrome trademark. A sequel was announced in 2006 but that was put on hold soon after being announced according to Wikipedia.
So maybe Google simply has a plan for the domain and simply purchased it?
To note, Google acquired the domain name Chrome.com from Chrome Systems Inc. on or about March 3, 2012 as reported here on TheDomains.com in two stories.
As always, I try my very best to provide accurate information with what I find. Using domain name whois records can often be a challenge and since many of these discoveries are early… it can be hard to get any sort of confirmation. I try not to speculate but again, with early discoveries that is part of the nature of these stories. I always try my best to provide things to back up the stories.
