Dynadot

information Inside Interview: How Reink Media Group Acquired Investor.com

Spaceship Spaceship
Michigan-based Reink Media Group may be familiar to you as the company that purchased StockBrokers.com for $185,000 in 2011. In a 2015 interview, managing partner Blain Reinkensmeyer told us his reasoning for acquiring the name. This year, Reink Media Group added to their portfolio of premium names by acquiring Investor.com.

In this interview, Blain gives us a fascinating insight into the acquisition of Investor.com. According to DomainIQ’s WHOIS history, the domain was acquired from Microsoft’s portfolio, although Blain was unable to confirm this due to a non-disclosure agreement.


Can you tell us about the business you’ve created around the Investor.com domain name?
At investor.com, we’ve built an algorithm that rates the trustworthiness of financial advisory firms based in the United States. Currently over 250,000 data points, pulled from various US government websites and filings, scores over 7,000 registered investment advisors (RIA) firms.

Trustworthiness is rated 1 – 99. For more, please see our new About page, https://investor.com/about.


Is this a domain name that you sought out, or was it brought to you?
The opportunity was brought to us by the domain’s selling agent.

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Blain Reinkensmeyer
The seller of Investor.com looks to have been Microsoft. Was it a complicated process to acquire the name from such a big company?
While I cannot comment on the seller due to non-disclosure agreements, I can say the process to acquire the domain was very smooth. The selling agent was an industry veteran and did an excellent job overall. In large domain transactions, quality communication and legal representation are crucial. We had no complaints.


How long did the process take from initial discussions to closing the deal?
About two months.


Would you have considered paying more for the domain than you did?
In transactions like this, experience matters and overall, I think both sides did very well with price negotiations. As an owner-operator organization - meaning we purchase, develop, and operate the domains in our portfolio - we felt we had an advantage over domain-only investors who were also interested in acquiring investor.com.


Did you use any tools, services, or data to determine your budget for the acquisition of investor.com?
Top tier AAA quality domain names are very difficult to value. Relevant comparable sales can be extremely difficult to come by and, in most cases, they are not utilized as each domain (category, length, extension, etc.) and transaction (buyer/seller) is unique. We approach each opportunity on a case by case basis as they are presented to us.


If Investor.com wasn’t a viable acquisition, did you have a list of alternative names to use for this project?


Has there been any client feedback on the domain name? Has it been positive?
It’s hard not to like the domain investor.com. Feedback has been very positive.


Do you think this venture would have been as successful on a different domain?
We are still in the very early stages of developing investor.com. It is a multi-year journey. Does
investor.com provide us with a competitive advantage from a brand standpoint? Absolutely. Could we be successful in developing the same business on a different domain? Perhaps.

Building successful businesses online shares some similarities to restaurants in that the food (content) is what speaks loudest in the end, not the cosmetics (design) or location (domain). Having a fantastic location and great atmosphere though goes a long way to bringing everything together. The restaurant location (domain) is an important part of a winning formula.


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Thanks to Blain for taking part in this Inside Interview, allowing us to get an insight into the acquisition of an ultra-premium .COM domain.


This interview has been edited for clarity.
 
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Thanks for the great interview! Love the restaurant anology.
 
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