Dynadot

interviews Ultra-Premium Monkey.com Returns to Original Owner

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In August, we published the news that the domain name Monkey.com had been sold in a deal worth $500,000. The sale, verified independently through an Escrow.com sales agreement, listed Daniel Mark Harrison of Monkey Capital as the buyer.

Daniel was scheduled to submit payments at regular intervals, but it seems that the buyer defaulted with the domain name being returned to the ownership of Eric Gould Bear, Founder and CEO of MONKEYmedia, Inc.

Monkey.com is an incredible domain name that, since 1994, has attracted significant attention with many high value offers being presented to the owner. So why did Eric opt to work with Daniel Mark Harrison? The answer is that to make a deal more compelling, it needs more than a dollar value.

monkey.jpg

MONKEYmedia's Logo
This week, we had the opportunity to speak with Eric Gould Bear to hear his story of Monkey.com and see exactly why he decided to work with Monkey Capital. Here, we get a rare insight into the mindset of an ultra-premium .COM domain name to see what makes a deal attractive.


NP: When did you initially acquire the Monkey.com domain name?

Eric: I personally registered the domain monkey.com in 1994 when MONKEYmedia was establishing its initial web presence as a user interface design firm. Then, in 2001, the company pivoted to independent R&D, to focus on inventing and licensing its own user-friendly technologies. As we were using the domain, we never intended to sell it.


NP: Have you received any significant offers in the past?

Eric: We’ve been declining generous offers for many years because dollars alone aren’t motivating without an underlying vision for use.


NP: Why did you opt to work with Daniel Mark Harrison of Monkey Capital?

Eric: We were intrigued by the prospect of supporting a fellow monkey in his crypto-currency venture, and negotiated a lease-to-own type deal to be managed by Escrow.com. The team at Escrow.com is professional and friendly, maintaining a high-quality operation of unbiasedly supporting parties on both sides of a transaction. Unfortunately, the buyer in this deal was repeatedly late on his payments. After extending deadlines several times, he ultimately defaulted and the domain was returned to us.


NP: Do you regret agreeing to this deal?

Eric: I have no regrets about the process, as I got to meet interesting people along the way and make quick study of learning about crypto-currency. That education led my partner and me to invest in the Austin-based Multicoin.Capital venture fund and we’re very excited about its potential. That wouldn’t have happened, had we not traveled this path.


NP: What are your current plans for the domain?

Eric: MONKEYmedia has been preparing to launch a new body of patented technologies for navigating virtual reality and piloting drones without motion sickness. We had been planning this launch with a different domain, but the unexpected availability of monkey.com is opportune


NP: Would you consider entering into a similar deal in the future?

Eric: In the future, anything is possible. We’re always open to working with fellow entrepreneurs, but prospective buyers will need to have a great pitch for how the domain would be used to make the world a better place.


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It’s obvious from Eric’s responses that by owning a high-value domain name, significant offers are a regular occurrence. In many cases, it takes more than a dollar value to close a deal.

We’ve seen many domain investors take advantage of their premium domain names by forging successful relationships with companies. Rick Schwartz, for example, has famously negotiated many cash plus equity deals when he sees a company with an interesting idea.

We look forward to seeing what is in store for monkey.com in the future.

Update on Nov 17, 2017: Monkey Capital have opted to use M0NK3Y.com after defaulting on their deal to purchase Monkey.com.
 
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The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
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Because the platform is providing a service, not a product. The broker can obviously have a separate agreement with the seller. Either way, they invested time and effort in completing a sale, even if it's "lease to own." If the buyer makes one payment, then defaults, should they get cents on the dollar?

And that service is an ongoing service, if it is interrupted, their revenue gets interrupted as well. It is not like they have to keep maintaining the account until the end of the contract. The only amount they should be entitled would be some admin/setup fee upfront.

And the broker should be in the same boat as the seller (or buyer, if he is representing him). The seller does not make the money = the broker does not make money.
 
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When you rent a house or an apartment via a service that locates them for you, do they get paid monthly, and stop getting paid if you don't pay the rent?

Escrow.com and others operate on a small margin. Large sales, such as this one, sit at 1%. It makes absolutely no sense not to receive the funds up front.
 
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Yes, a broker that helps with renting out a property gets paid from proceeds received, not upfront for the whole of the lease period.
 
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Real estate location services are paid up front, not on a monthly basis. Maybe my example didn't help make a point. Either way, at 1% profit margin I would want the money up front too.
 
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The article implies that more than one payment was made but going from sale to default in just four months there couldn’t have been too many payments made.

Still, I doubt the $500k was stretched out over longer than 12 months so I’d guess that seller received more than a token amount.
 
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Plus if I were doing the sale I’d have made the first payment the largest one - a down payment so to speak.
 
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If I spend days on a multi-million dollar deal for you, should I not get paid at all? Most major business deals have a clause that says if the buyer backs out of the deal, they have to pay X for the time spent on the deal. I dont know why the seller and broker's time is worthless.
 
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you are very lucky to have this name
Thanks, but it was actually just research that resulted in me buying a name I felt was valuable. And I was right.
 
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From Monkey.com to M0nk3y.com

That is pretty embarrassing
 
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From Monkey.com to M0nk3y.com

That is pretty embarrassing


actually it was from monkey.capital to monkey.com and then to m0nk3y.com.

This shows it does not matter how crappy a .com is end-user still want the .com instead of an alt extension.
 
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Monkey had no M0n3y for Monkey.com
 
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When m0nk3y was first mentioned I thought it was a JOKE but then I looked and :ROFL: talk about Welcome! to Rock Bottom, m0nk3y is it!
 
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But by returning the domain to the seller, what now happened with the total money paid?
It was rent to owm. So they're rental payments while the domain was in use.

Probably wasn't a fair rental price

But if the ico is a scam, then. It couldn't be fairer zD
 
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