Got root? In computing, the term root holds foundational significance, symbolizing ultimate authority and access.
Derived from Unix systems, the root account (superuser) possesses unrestricted control over the operating system, capable of modifying any file, process, or configuration. Root also represents the underlying structure of file systems, where all directories and paths originate from the root directory (/).
The matching .com domain, Root.com, was registered in early 1994, at a time when domain registrations were free.
Very appropriately, the original registrant of Root.com was David Greenman, a co-founder of the FreeBSD project, a version of the Unix operating system.
Greenman (DG for short) got the web content on Root.com going, from as early as in 1999, using it to promote FreeBSD, as this capture shows.
In 2001, the domain’s content switched to that of Tera Solutions, a RAID systems company where DG was president. By 2003, the domain presented content from Download Technologies, another company owned by DG. That domain’s live page hasn’t changed much in the past 20+ years!
By November 2004 the domain Root.com had been sold to a CPA services company whose owner’s name was M. Darren Root. The company held onto the domain until 2022, when it was sold to Root, Inc., an insurance company that formed in 2015.
Our research shows that the company acquired the domain Root.com in early 2022 and began forwarding it to JoinRoot.com in March 2022.
Here’s part of a mailer we received yesterday from Root insurance that triggered this post: 🙂
So how much did Root insurance pay for the domain Root.com?
Here’s what we found from their financial statements:
“In March 2022, we purchased the Root.com domain and recognized $1.3 million, including transaction costs, as of December 31, 2022 in other assets in our consolidated balance sheets.”
So there you have it; another seven figure sale, that of Root.com for $1.3 million, has been uncovered.
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Awesome, nice find DomainGang!