A huge monopolized business contacted me for a domain name...

[evilopinions]

Hi all,

:hi:

I have been contacted by a huge corporation which holds a arguable monopoly in the world in the field of computers and related operating systems.

I have a domain name which is a .com extension which they are seeking and have effectively tried to reach my number atleast 2 times now. I do not want to name the domain name in general intrest of the deal but just wanted to know how much should I ask for the domain name assuming that the company is very very very huge and they want to deal straight away.....


Lets us say if the domain was windows.com and the company was microsoft....just an example

there is no trademark issue as the company has not launched the product relating to the name and I am still running a nice site which receives decent 1000 uniques a day....

 

[VURG]

Maybe start with the higher of $10,000 or 100(multiplied by)annual parking revenue. If you want to play it safe drop this down 50%.

 

[evilopinions]

I have a feeling I should go 200 * revenue .....The annual revenue of the company is in terms of billions with them dealing in more than 100 countries....


and yeah i use adsense...earns me about 150-200 a month

 

[Halobitt]

and yeah i use adsense...earns me about 150-200 a month

Just remember that if you don't sell and the company launch the product with the same name your traffic and income would probably increase anyway.

 

[evilopinions]

good point and the product launch would be independent of them aquiring the domain name...

guess they have done their research

 

[Name Trader]

I'd start out at $1,000,000. Which is peanuts for them and they obviously want to design a product around your name, or have already done so.

 

[Silhouette]

let me guess.. is it iRack .com ?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rw2nkoGLhrE

<kidding>

Congrats...

 

[sashas]

why don't you tell them that you'd bought the name for a significant sum for your own personal use, but you would be willing to part with it, but only for some SUBSTANTIAL offers.
Make them play ball first. You seriously don't want to lose out on a HUGE sale by quoting a price ahead of them. If the company is big and the product promises to be big too, then you should get a big offer from them.

Make them move first, thats what I would say. Perhaps contact one of the senior members here by PM for help in the negotiations.

 

[mbuna]

I agree with sasha's. Tell them you have substantial amounts invested in it and intending on keeping the domain but would part with it for the right offer. Make them offer first, then counter with what you really want based on their offer.

 

[cache]

1 mil

 

[Krossat]

The only thing i can add is that do some research on ur name.
Is ur name absolutely unique or are there available / unavailable alternatives to it? Can this company go for a seemingly similar name and make do with it for their product?

If there are existing similar domains, are they taken by the same company or some other? Putting a figure to ur domain would be inapropriate without knowing what it is and how 'unique' it is for the company in question.

Tell them you have been getting offers and would like to receive one from them instead of putting a price on the domain. It's great that you got an offer from a massive company, but remember, the moneys still in their pocket and they can move away if the asking price is outrageous, and if the domain is not unique enough for them.

 

[snoop]

I'd start out at $1,000,000. Which is peanuts for them and they obviously want to design a product around your name, or have already done so.

This is the best way to ensure the name will never sell and why is large companies generally contact people using hotmail accounts.

"there is no trademark issue as the company has not launched the product relating to the name"

Not launching the product yet is different to not having trademark rights, be very careful here.

 

[evilopinions]

A few questions before i request to close this thread so that i do not create a havoc before selling....

This is a keyword.com domain and just some research on my end reveled that the company has actually registered all keyword1.com keyword1relatedkeyword2.com keywordkeyword.com and many other combinations in com extension and a few in org extensions.. One more webmaster runs a similiar website with keywords.net like me and he mailed me to check whether i received an offer...

I am still speculating as the offer i received is via a small reseller and on my first refusal i saw the bigger picture..

Question when the company launches the product can they sue me for the domain name ?

I do not wish to contact any reseller as I would want to close the deal myself and I know I am good at it...

reps added to all

 

[Name Trader]

How much did Apple pay for iPhones.com? That should be your reference point. Although I understand the psychology behind not fixing a price, I don't see much point in beating about the bush either. It's easier to negotiate down from 1mil than up to it.

 

[briman1970]

I do not wish to contact any reseller as I would want to close the deal myself and I know I am good at it...

Truely I mean no offense by this, but if you were an absolute pro, you wouldn't be asking for advice here on how to proceed.

It sounds like you are dealing with (Bri whispers M i c r o s o f t) a very large corporation. You do not want to mess up this once in a lifetime opportunity. Please take my advice. This is the man you need to be talking to right here instead of asking for advice on an open forum with a large percentage of newbies.

His name is Justin Allen and he is well-respected at Namepros for his negotiation ability. If you offered him a small percentage, he could handle negotiations as your "partner" and most likely get you the price you dream of for your domain. At the very least, he (or his threads) can give you some premium advice on how to proceed with negotiation.

I'd love and hate to be in your shoes. 8^X Scary.

 

[ssamriga]

evilopinions I really hope that in the end you will reveal the company, the name and the price, when it'll all be done...

 

[Devil_Dog]

Here's a good quote from another msgboard:

Originally posted by snoopy
Imagine if you went into a realestate agency and inquired about a house, the agent turns to you and says

Who are you?, tell me your name and your company, we need this information so we can calculate a price that is just right 'for you'. That is how realestate works, it is priced according to what we think you can afford, not what the property is worth.

Last week someone bought a house from us and it turned out it they were buying it for a large multinational company, if we'd known that we would have have asked twice what the house is worth.

Also what you planning on doing with the house?, we don't do business with anyone other than motivated end users, we don't want any investors buying this house.

 

[Halobitt]

A few questions before i request to close this thread so that i do not create a havoc before selling....

If you do close the thread, get it reopened later just to tell us how you got on (and the name itself if a NDA wasn't signed).

Question when the company launches the product can they sue me for the domain name ?

Adsense.com for a long time was held by another company which had absolutely nothing to do with adsense, before G eventually aquired it.

 

[sashas]

A few questions before i request to close this thread so that i do not create a havoc before selling....

This is a keyword.com domain and just some research on my end reveled that the company has actually registered all keyword1.com

In that scenario, it is vital for the company to get the name. They know they'll lose thousands of visitors everyday to you (which would undoubtedly increase your name's value).

I would really take it very slowly right now. Ask them for an offer and if they again ask you in return to quote a price, then quote them a big amount (I'm talking 100k+ atleast). Even if they refuse right now and the sale does not consummate, after their product launches and half their traffic goes to your site, they will be forced to buy your name, this time at whatever price you want ask them. Quite like the adsense situation. Google thought they could do without the Adsense name, but they eventually had to buy it.

And no, I don't think they could take the name away from you. You regged it before they did.

 

[moped]

Tell them its not for sale