Worth noting that they also own and use sncf.com (not sure if a parent company or what exactly) but it is in use. But European companies tend not to put as much weight into domain name quality as the US.
Maybe not the most effective, or cost effective way to market itself, but persay a music agency called "empire" who manage many entertainers. They could do something like U2.empire, BonJovi.empire, etc. I can't say this is a great idea imo but it's one of very few reasons for a company to use a .brand. If you can afford $180k to start a new extension then you can afford all but the 0.1% of domain names