CBSNews.com published a blog post about a week ago about a domain investor who owns Lebron.com since 2008.
The story, which in a very positive light, chatted about a domain investor, Patrick Nagle. whom they described as a “Tech-savvy Maryland businessman”.
“As millions of basketball fans search online for news of what team free agent LeBron James will be playing for next, Mr. Nagle has found a way to benefit.
Type in LeBronJames.com and you go to James’s official Web site. But type in lebron.com and you’ll end up wherever Nagle directs you. Nagle bought the domain name lebron.com back in 2008.”
“Now he has taken all of the Web traffic looking for basketball news at Lebron.com and directed it to Nagle’s own personal LinkedIn profile instead.”
In an email to CBS News today, Nagle says, “I’ve been buying and selling Internet business for the past 15 years (since I was 16). I stumbled across Lebron.com when I co-founded OurSpace.com in 2008, an Urban Social Network, (later acquired by News Corp). I thought lebron.com was a great domain, so I bought it.”
Now about a week after CBS News published the story the domain name Lebron.com is forwarding for the first time since 2008 to Lebron James Official site LebronJames.com
The whois record has not changed so we don’t know if there is a lease and/or sale in the works, or maybe Mr. Nagle responded to a C & D letter based on the story.
We don’t have the answer yet but the timing of the forwarding of the domain to Mr. James official site on the heels of the story would seem to indicate something is in the works.
As for Mr. Nagle he seems to be another one of those people who has been in the domain investment space for a very long time but isn’t a well know figure in the community but appears to be making some big money from domaining.
The article goes on to quote Mr. Nagle to say:
“I recently re-sold MarijuanaMD.com in less than week for mid six-figures after acquiring it for $800.
I don’t know what Lebron.com is worth — but I do know it is a quality generic name.”
Nagle says he owns or runs around 3,000 domains and web properties, but has “stopped buying and selling to focus on a new business.”
