Large corporations do not want their branding plans exposed to the public outright.
When billions of dollars are at stake, Fortune 500 companies such as Microsoft utilize third party “proxy” buyers to acquire domain assets from their registrants.
The case of HoloLens.com is a great example of how Wall Street operates; just because a company is valued at several hundred billion dollars, it does not mean they’d spend carelessly on even the matching .com for their new product.
Companies such as Marksmen operate on the sidelines of the marketing and branding industry, providing valuable services to their clients.
And they are not alone.
The Negotiator Agency is another such consulting company, operating “under the radar“, which provides a range of services related to:
- Domain Names
- Trademarks
- Patents
- Vanity Phone Numbers
- Social Media IDs
Based in La Canada, California, the Negotiator Agency operates with a range of principles that would protect the identity of their client; as the proxy buyer of digital assets they often engage in the signing of non-disclosure agreements.
From the Negotiator Agency intro:
“We always say, do not settle for less than your first choice. And most certainly, do not let the fear of negotiating sway you from your preferred name. That’s where we come in. Instead of going back to the drawing board, let us help you with this crucial step of the journey. We will reach out to that other party and negotiate to purchase the property on your behalf. Meanwhile, you can continue concentrating on moving forward with the business itself as we handle this item for you.”
Sometimes, however, information is made available through the close monitoring of domain industry tools, such as DomainTools, and we are about to share some information about a domain we valued at seven figures not too long ago.
Twitch.com went into privacy on November 12, 2014 and on January 22 of this year it emerged under the control of the Negotiator Agency. This change indicates the following:
- The domain Twitch.com has been sold
- It was probably sold to a large client, hence the use of a proxy buyer
- It was most likely sold for big bucks
Peter Kay, the presumably now former owner of the domain, was well educated on the value of his asset; unlike in the case of HoloLens.com, whereupon the seller set a low BIN price of $6,750.
We are confident, that this domain sale would be one of the biggest in 2014, but we might never find out the exact amount that it was sold for.
All we can do now is wait for the DNS to change to the new owner, which most likely will be the company behind Twitch.TV, which is owned by Amazon.
It only makes sense.
One thing that I don’t understand with in the purchase of HoloLens.com is that if it had a BIN, why couldn’t an internal employee in the Intellectual Property division click the button themselves? Sedo would act as escrow between the seller and buyer, never tipping them off that they have a @microsoft.com email address.
That’s the only missing link from this as it did cost them more to go through a proxy, when they have competent enough people on payroll.
David – Good question. These agencies are often on the corporate payroll, repeating this task quite often. And data can be leaked or revealed, if corporate staff were to handle the case directly. It also might allow the companies to pursue the domain by other means, such as litigation, should the first approach fail.