sales Nissan sells Z.com to GMO for $6.8 million

[NPer]

"GMO Internet, operator of Japan’s largest domain name registrar, has acquired the one letter domain name Z.com for JPY800 million ($6.8 million), the company announced today.
Japanese car manufacturer Nissa sold the domain name, which it previously used to promote its Nissan Z car.

GMO says it’s going to use the domain name, one of only three single letter .com domains available, to accelerate its global market expansion:


As one of only three single-character domain names currently existing in the .com space, Z.com is highly memorable and offers unparalleled marketing opportunity. With over 100 million registrations, .com is one of the most instantly recognizable and easily identifiable domains in the world. Z.com was acquired to spearhead GMO Internet Group global growth strategy, and securing “Z” under the .com Top Level Domain, provides the Group with a powerful tool to build a strong global brand."​

Read More: http://domainnamewire.com/2014/11/21/wow-nissan-sells-z-com-domain-name-to-gmo-for-6-8-million/

 

[RaiderX]

Too many futurists in here thinking this is a stupid decision who don't understand that sacrifices and proper decisions have to be made in business. It could've been either selling this non-current business asset which isn't as important to free up cash flow or maybe even making the company lose tens of millions in sales/revenue because they don't have enough cashflow. Maybe it was a low offer to accept, maybe it wasn't - but there's no way a company like Nissan would sell away this domain just for the sake of selling it - they needed the money.

 

[equity78]

@equity78

Thanks for the information.

I haven't researched this in depth, but from what I can tell, the story isn't all that complete. Wikipedia's community isn't satisfied with the validity of the page written on it, and I found a few inconsistencies with it myself.

"Two-letter .com domain names were never reserved" (Wikipedia).

ICANN Additional Second-Level Reservations (26 April 2001):


cm.com is reserved today, but I don't know which organization is behind its reservation.

I agree its not perfect, I did find another source that verified the 1993 part but the whole wikipedia article needs some improvement you are right.

 

[pranker]

Too many futurists in here thinking this is a stupid decision who don't understand that sacrifices and proper decisions have to be made in business. It could've been either selling this non-current business asset which isn't as important to free up cash flow or maybe even making the company lose tens of millions in sales/revenue because they don't have enough cashflow. Maybe it was a low offer to accept, maybe it wasn't - but there's no way a company like Nissan would sell away this domain just for the sake of selling it - they needed the money.

nissan is a multi-billion dollar business. a few million dollars and they threw away an excellent potential brand and one of the best domain names in the world... what if they wanted to get into robotics like honda? also they could have renamed the company "Z" or done like toyota did with scion and make a new brand, a whole car lineup of "Z" cars.... if it was up to me, renaming the entire company to the letter "Z" would have been a no brainer. You already have the unstoppable domain name to promote that too. its just an awkward decision from a company that has made awkward domain decisions in the past.

if youre a multi-billion dollar company, you should always be ready to move on to the next billion, not sell a potentially very lucrative domain name for single digit millions. thats pennies to nissan

 

[DnEbook]

Hard to find within my budget, have stumbled upon three decent ones. Even before this came out they started going up in price along with many being held, probably for big bucks later. I am a fan of one letter anything especially when I can find it at normal reg, fee or just slightly higher in price.

I don't recall the extension but seen one the other night at $55,000 reg. and $55,000 renewal. Ouch!

https://www.namepros.com/threads/g-directory-and-o-directory-selling-at-a-loss.838875/

 

[pinkunicorn]

little did they know, google blacklisted the domain 10 years ago for spammy backlinks.

 

[DU]

I think it's a pretty sweet sale in today's economy. I wonder how much this press will drive up pricing for one letter gTLDS? I've seen a few listed at outrageous prices already, with the same renewal fee each year.

I bet they're going up as I'm typing..

Overstock is thrilled to see the value of o.co rising while they do nothing with it but redirect

.... if it was up to me, renaming the entire company to the letter "Z" would have been a no brainer.

That's why you're domainer posting at Namepros and not the CEO of a major company, imho.

 

[pranker]

Overstock is thrilled to see the value of o.co rising while they do nothing with it but redirect


That's why you're domainer posting at Namepros and not the CEO of a major company, imho.

how would you know whether or not i was CEO of a company? you wouldnt. and i wouldn't consider myself a "domainer" but nice try.
its also good to know you couldn't counter anything else in my post, like why nissan, a multi-billion dollar company, is worried about selling a lucrative asset for pennies.

 

[baseballworld]

Very powerful domain. Think Nissan should of held out on this one.

 

[DomainVP]

I believe their concerns were that they are too short and people would end up on them by mistake. Also, that people might confuse them with ccTLDs: there was a time when most people would type ".com" at the end of everything, including domains.

Example: A person wants to visit Twitch.TV, but they type in Twitch.TV.com instead because that's what they were trained to do ("add .com at the end") and that would take them to TV.com's website instead of Twitch.TV's website.

That time is still today.

 

[baseballworld]

Nissan could of held out for they do have the 370 z. But then again we didnt see general motors has a z line as well from cavalier, camaro, z71 trucks , etc. Maybe the domain just does not fit there needs for some reason. Maybe they want 370z.com I mean only they know for sure why they wanted it gone.

 

[DomainVP]

I agree, someone messed up here unless they need liquidity and are selling off many assets; not just domains. $6.8mil is not chump change to anyone, and it all adds up.

It's possible they were on a billion dollar fund raising campaign of non essential assets, and were looking for immediate liquidity.

Did the buyer get a deal... absolutely; I'm 100% sure they could resell it for double or triple. Some billionaire out there would want to show off that they are so rich they own a 1 letter .COM; it's vanity.

OR

You can open a whole new gTLD without having to go through the insane gTLD application process;

site.z.com ; it's better than site.blackfriday

Oh well; conjecture & speculation. It's also possible that a group of cunning girlfriends demanded their CEO boyfriends sell the domain to whatever Nancy would buy it.

 

[mad409]

And now we know why: http://domaingang.com/domain-news/nissan-motors-acquires-nissan-com-25000000-dollars/

 

[nomen]

And now we know why: http://domaingang.com/domain-news/nissan-motors-acquires-nissan-com-25000000-dollars/

Didn't happen.

 

[Edward Smeu]

Link not working for me. I believe they wanted the domain +10mil.

Can somebody sue for having myname dot com ( Nissan Computers owner's name is Nissan ) if they have the same name for their company?!

 

[mad409]

Didn't happen.

The article is fake, is that what you're saying? They didn't purchase nissan.com for 25 million?

 

[nomen]

The article is fake, is that what you're saying? They didn't purchase nissan.com for 25 million?

Yes.

 

[Name Trader]

Why so cheap? Nissan should have changed the name of the company to Z Cars, after the old British TV series (anyone old enough to remember that?) and used Z.COM for their worldwide business. I think it is a good buy and a wise move by GMO Internet. Branded for life. I'm jealous

 

[Keith]

The article is fake, is that what you're saying? They didn't purchase nissan.com for 25 million?

If they did these 2 deals it's a terrible CEO at the controls. No way they should acquire Nissan for more than a few million...

 

[Domainace]

It's all speculation here. Too many details buried, the deal is between two Japanese companies with no outside bids invited (that could have attracted more money). A few million is pennies to a company like Nissan - they wouldn't sell the name to help cash flow anymore than I would sell my grandmother's brass tea kettle to help pay off a mortgage.

Likely, the person who signed off on the deal and the buyer are close. The whole thing doesn't pass the smell test. And domain management isn't Nissan's strong suit, so who knows what it took to push the deal through?

 

[Edward Smeu]

Surely there are plenty of details hidden to public. No transparency at all in this deal. Do they pay taxes for that transaction?

 

[Joseph Green]

And now we know why: http://domaingang.com/domain-news/nissan-motors-acquires-nissan-com-25000000-dollars/

That article falls under "Parody domain news that follow the tongue-in-cheek humor of The Onion" (DomainGang).

 

[DU]

how would you know whether or not i was CEO of a company? you wouldnt. and i wouldn't consider myself a "domainer" but nice try.
its also good to know you couldn't counter anything else in my post, like why nissan, a multi-billion dollar company, is worried about selling a lucrative asset for pennies.

Educated guess based on various factors that I won't list.

Surely there are plenty of details hidden to public. No transparency at all in this deal. Do they pay taxes for that transaction?

No they don't. Nissan does all their deals with brown paper bags and secret handshakes. They don't even make any announcements to their shareholders let alone deal with governments or taxation. Of course they probably have had legal advice on tax avoidance.

Still don't understand where people think some company is going go come out of the blue and pay $21 million for this domain. It's one letter.. so what? The value is based on scarcity and not anything else.

Z.com means nothing until someone totally rebrands on Z... so the sale (for the obvious 3x value) is limited to companies with a spare $21 million that haven't yet branded on something else.... or are creating a new brand and are willing to build that around a single letter Z. I'm pretty sure that's a small list.

 

[Name Trader]

Sigh. Now there's only Q and X to go after. So I suppose their prices have gone up now

 

[Josh R]

I forgot all about that! Nissan Motor vs. Nissan Computer

They're just full of wise decisions, aren't they?

http://www.digest.com/Big_Story.php

I'll never buy a nissan car after reading this.

 

[DomainVP]

http://www.digest.com/Big_Story.php

I'll never buy a nissan car after reading this.

Here's what makes absolutely no sense to me.

According to the owner of Nissan dot com, he has spent 2.9 million dollars defending this case over the last twenty years. Nissan, hiring expensive lawyers, must have spent 20 times that amount trying to win this domain, which they will never win in court or any legal proceeding; after 20 years of losses and judgments against them it's pretty much a done deal.

Nissan is the guys family name, so he will pass it onto his kids even if he dies; so what the hell is Nissan Motors waiting for?

They are they willing to spend 50 million dollars on court nonsense over two decades, but won't buy the domain.

Just give the guy $25 mil, attach a non disclosure, and be done with it; it makes no sense for them to continue this after they have pulled just about every legal maneuver they could think of.