Big Businesses, I just don't get it!!!!!

[Yofie]

I use to work for one of the largest and most profitable companies, Procter & Gamble, which has so many top brands it's crazy! Like Tide, Bounty, Charmin, Dawn, Folgers, Crest and so on.

When I worked for P&G and being a stock holder, it always upset me, that they wouldn't just buy things from a normal store. It always had to be purchased threw a "vendor". So if I needed a bolt, and we didn't have it, I had to order it from a vendor at a cost of $5 or whatever, but at Home Depot, that same bolt was $0.25. Just doesn't make sense, but that's the way these big companies do things....

I am getting to the Domain part of all of this soon..... lol

Now, I just used P&G as an example of a big company since I have worked for them, but recently I was dealing with another large company of P&G's size about purchasing a domain name.

Now I had known from the start, that this would be a tall order, but I figured, what the heck, it's worth a shot and I'm sure I will learn somethings.

Boy oh boy did I learn somethings. I can not disclose everything yet (if all goes as planned, I can about March 30th) but I can disclose somethings and wanted to hear if any of you have dealt with any large companies like this.

1.) First off, in order for me to purchase the domain from this company, the sale has to be Approved by the legal team.

2.) Finding the right person to talk to, took me a week.

3.) Now this is a Multi-Billion dollar company.... They have no clue what the domains worth... Now that's good for me, but also pretty Crazy! I mean really, they do not have a clue. Not because it's a specific domain, but just domains in general if you ask me.

4.) Just because it's a big company, they are going to want Big Bucks, because that's just what they are use to dealing with.

5.) They would rather get Nothing, rather then something! That's the simple way of putting it! Now if you are a stock holder in a company and hear a little bit of how this company is handleing it's assts, wouldn't you be pissed to know they are turning down money for something and would rather get nothing? I know I would be, as these little sales add up. Keep in mind, many of these big companies own Lots of domains......

[wmloz]

I would be MORE pissed as a stockholder knowledgeable in the field of domains if Suzie in the domain department sold a valuable name, one of our ASSETS, to some lucky guy for less than fair market value. Little sales to bigcompanies amount to a hill of beans. Their stock losses or gains are all they are worried about and I can guarantee you one lil' ole domain isn't going to affect the bottom line. That is of course unless they get a HUGE amount for it. Who's to say they'll get NOTHING for it. They don't need the money, so NOTHING rather than FAIR MARKET VALUE makes perfect sense to John A. Stockholder.

[alexsimon]

I hope they won't ask a company to appraise the domain.

I recently made a respectable offer for a domain name. He said basically that he forgot about the name and will sell it, the offer I submitted was good, but they will get back to me in a few days. Later, I got a simple email saying that they appraised the name, and he will not sell it for less than $50k.

Sometimes I really hate appraisals. My offer was a respectable one, lower than the market value, but the domain is in no way worth that much either.

Hope you will have a happy end Yofie.

[Yofie]

Originally Posted by wmloz

I would be MORE pissed as a stockholder knowledgeable in the field of domains if Suzie in the domain department sold a valuable name, one of our ASSETS, to some lucky guy for less than fair market value. Little sales to bigcompanies amount to a hill of beans. Their stock losses or gains are all they are worried about and I can guarantee you one lil' ole domain isn't going to affect the bottom line. That is of course unless they get a HUGE amount for it. Who's to say they'll get NOTHING for it. They don't need the money, so NOTHING rather than FAIR MARKET VALUE makes perfect sense to John A. Stockholder.

Like I said, I couldn't display the whole story, but the Nothing Part, is a big part of the story....

If you can put two and two together, here is a hint.. They will no longer have this asset, if I pay them or not!

[hugegrowth]

Let us know what happens, good luck!

[PREDATOR]

so, its gonna end up on snap then? they would rather drop than sell cheap or at all? crazy

[Yofie]

Originally Posted by PREDATOR

so, its gonna end up on snap then? they would rather drop than sell cheap or at all? crazy

Pretty Much!

[JMJ]

When it comes to large companies going bankrupt or being bought out a domain name isn't considered an asset. Take betonsports.com as a great example. Here they are trying to find ways to pay off their vendors and their domains are hitting the drop market. Another good example would be ameriquestmortgage.com. At a time when the mortgage industry is hurting as it is here you have citibank letting go of a huge traffic name. I even ran across one person on one of the boards that contacted the bankruptcy attorney regarding one of the names the defunct company had and the attorney told them it wasn't part of the asset liquidation. So he had to wait for it to hit the drops. Maybe someday this will change and maybe a good target market for someone? Specializing in defunct company domain liquidation?

[wmloz]

Didn't catch the part where it was dropping. I know my company treasures their domains and we absolutely consider them an asset because they are generic names targeted at a niche audience. Our competitors would pay millions for our domains.

[Prospecting]

Originally Posted by JMJ

When it comes to large companies going bankrupt or being bought out a domain name isn't considered an asset. Take betonsports.com as a great example. Here they are trying to find ways to pay off their vendors and their domains are hitting the drop market. Another good example would be ameriquestmortgage.com. At a time when the mortgage industry is hurting as it is here you have citibank letting go of a huge traffic name. I even ran across one person on one of the boards that contacted the bankruptcy attorney regarding one of the names the defunct company had and the attorney told them it wasn't part of the asset liquidation. So he had to wait for it to hit the drops. Maybe someday this will change and maybe a good target market for someone? Specializing in defunct company domain liquidation?

betonsports.com & ameriquestmortgage.com are trademark names. Trademark holders will always have control of respective domains.

If these companies had realized the value in generic domains, ie, sportsequipment.com/sportinggoods.com or mortgage.com, etc, you can bet they would not let those domains drop.

[JMJ]

Ameriquest mortgage is no longer in existence Citibank bought them out and shut the company down in '97. Grant it they got the trademark rights along with but you would think $7 renewal would have been a lot cheaper than a WIPO down the road. But then again their attorny may handle their renewals and needed something else to bill on. And besides that the name had boatloads of links so they basicly just tossed out some of the most valuable traffic on the market. betonsports.com was dropping generic names. At least one that will likely be on DNJ this week.

[Prospecting]

Originally Posted by JMJ

Ameriquest mortgage is no longer in existence Citibank bought them out and shut the company down in '97. Grant it they got the trademark rights along with but you would think $7 renewal would have been a lot cheaper than a WIPO down the road. But then again their attorny may handle their renewals and needed something else to bill on. And besides that the name had boatloads of links so they basicly just tossed out some of the most valuable traffic on the market. betonsports.com was dropping generic names. At least one that will likely be on DNJ this week.

understood and I do recall that citibank captured ameri, thought it wasn't so long ago though, my the time does fly.

one of the quickest ways to get yourself a lawsuit, medling with another's TM. Whew, messing with another entities TM is like playing with gasoline and fire.
Generic domains, direct navigation offer much better returns

best

[Yofie]

Originally Posted by Prospecting

understood and I do recall that citibank captured ameri, thought it wasn't so long ago though, my the time does fly.

one of the quickest ways to get yourself a lawsuit, medling with another's TM. Whew, messing with another entities TM is like playing with gasoline and fire.
Generic domains, direct navigation offer much better returns

best

Yes, I should of stated that as well.... It's a Generic. I guess sometimes I assume that people read my mind and that I am not a TM buyer.

Big or Small, if a company:
A.) Doesn't know they have a valuable asset or
B.) Manages an asset poorly

They need to do some restructuring or hire some of us domainers for some White Glove Consulting

[idevlabs]

I bought a LLL.com from U.S. Bancorp and had to jump through all the hoops you are talking about with getting approval from the legal team regarding TM issues etc. And yes, they also didn't have the slightest idea what it was worth.

When you say they would rather get nothing, are you saying they are giving you the domain for free? If so, congrats!

[simon]

Originally Posted by Yofie

Yes, I should of stated that as well.... It's a Generic. I guess sometimes I assume that people read my mind and that I am not a TM buyer.

Big or Small, if a company:
A.) Doesn't know they have a valuable asset or
B.) Manages an asset poorly

They need to do some restructuring or hire some of us domainers for some White Glove Consulting

Jamie, i am guessing that you have registered a name and you are sitting onto it until a big company pays big bucks for it? well it might work but the chances that you might have to sit forever on the domain is 99.99% unless its super generic one, two word domain

[Yofie]

Originally Posted by simon

Jamie, i am guessing that you have registered a name and you are sitting onto it until a big company pays big bucks for it? well it might work but the chances that you might have to sit forever on the domain is 99.99% unless its super generic one, two word domain

Not sure if you had read the first post, but I will quote myself.

Originally Posted by yofie

1.) First off, in order for me to purchase the domain from this company, the sale has to be Approved by the legal team.

So the answer is, I am the Buyer

[Yofie]

Update.

The domain name was SBSE.com . Continuously registered since 1993! Old owner GE (General Electric). Sold on NameJet.com for $1,600 (not me).

Quoting in one of my emails from GE, "We are letting this domain go- we no longer needed it. It has expired, so you should be able to go and pick it up." like hand register "get it".

So it's very clear to me GE has No Clue the value of domain names. If you have stock in this company, I'd sell now, seeing how they handle their assests!

I wrote a little bit more about the story in my blog as well, if you would like to read it. I just can't wait until they "do not need" GE.com or any other of their 15,000 + domain names

[petrosc]

Actually, here in Czech Republic GE Money Bank(owned by General Electric) is the only Bank that "gets" domains.

They have invested and acquired some of the best local generic high traffic domain names in the .cz market (which is a very active aftermarket when it comes to one word generics)

[buymynames]

Originally Posted by Yofie

So it's very clear to me GE has No Clue the value of domain names.

Sorry to hear that you didn't get the name.

But it's ok, there's 15k more to go...

Cheers Yofie!