Domain name transfers to IP protection company.
An old Microsoft domain name has changed hands.
The whois record for Do.com changed yesterday from Microsoft to Glendale, California company Marksmen.
Marksmen is an intellectual property company that often helps companies acquire domain names. But it also owns NameQuiver, a domain name brokerage that sells domains on behalf of other companies.
NameQuiver was the seller broker for the now complete $2.6 million Social.com sale. That domain was sold through a Moniker auction to an as-yet-unnamed buyer.
If Microsoft were just using Marksmen as a broker the domain probably would have remained in Microsoft’s name, so my verdict here is that the domain has sold.
Do.com was originally registered in 1995. Lately it merely forwarded to a Bing query for “do”, which is common for Microsoft’s unused domain names.
Brian Null says
nice find Andrew… will be interesting to see if the buyer uses it as a new ‘brand’ or if it was purchased by a company using it as an abbreviation, ala fb.com and wp.com
C.T. says
Crazy. Thought they might use it in conjunction with their new purchase of Dotastic.com.
Andrew Allemann says
@ C.T. – that is peculiar. I hadn’t heard of DOtastic, but when you go to it’s web site the logo pops out at you as “DO”.
James says
I don’t see the point in a company like Microsoft selling such a name.
Sooner or later they will be wanting a brandable domain.
(Unless they were offered tens of milions or more for it) how is the extra cash going to further their business?
C.T. says
@ Andrew
I had just read about Microsoft buying Dotastic.com on Dot Weekly about 5 minutes before you posted this. Maybe the two moves have something in common.
Jamie says
Here I thought you got the idea to look at Do.com after reading my article this morning about Dotastic.com 🙂
Andrew Allemann says
@ Jamie – now that timing of the whois change would have been awesome!
But I’m really scratching my head now. My guess is the person who sold this domain isn’t connected to the product team for dotastic at all.
1-800AUCTION.COM says
I’m surprised Francois let that one go.
It’s his name. Maybe he should file a UDRP?
Liam Mackay says
salesforce seems to be new owners also previous buyers of social.com