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In
a sale that obliterated
the record for the highest cash
price paid in a publicly
reported domain sale (since we began
tracking the aftermarket in 2003), Voice.com
has changed hands for $30 million.
The news came in a press
release from seller MicroStrategy
Inc., a public company listed on
the NASDAQ (under the symbol MSTR).
The buyer was Block.one,
a company that is using Voice.com
to launch its new blockchain-based
social media platform called
Voice.
The
press release noted that GoDaddy
"facilitated" the
transaction on May 30, 2019. Paul
Nicks, the VP & GM of the
GoDaddy Aftermarket, noted on
Twitter that the company was paid an
undisclosed
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Image
from Bigstock
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commission
(above and beyond the $30 million)
to help consummate the deal via its Domain
Broker Service. Marge
Breya, Senior Executive Vice
President and Chief Marketing
Officer for MicroStrategy, said,
"Block.one has made a smart
strategic decision in choosing
Voice.com to be the internet domain
name for its new social media
platform. The word ‘voice’ is
simple and universally understood.
It’s also ubiquitous ― as a
search term, it returns billions of
results on the internet. An
ultra-premium domain name like
Voice.com can help a company achieve
instant brand recognition, ignite a
business, and massively accelerate
value creation." MicroStrategy
also noted it owns a portfolio with
many other top tier one-word .com
domains, including Alert.com,
Hope.com, Strategy.com, Speaker.com
and Glory.com, to name just a few. Prior
to the Voice.com sale, the highest
verified all cash domain sale we
have seen was Sex.com at $13
million in 2010.
We have seen other sources list
sales of developed online businesses
(like Insurance.com and
CarInsurance.com) or domains paid
for with stock (that in some cases
was worthless or close to it) or
cash/stock combinations (like
PrivateJet.com) as cash "domain
sales." Wikipedia's list of top
"domain" sales is full of
this kind of misinformation that
unfortunately keeps getting repeated
across the web. We maintain a list
of the top
20 verified cash domain sales
made since we began our weekly
domain sales reports in
2003.
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