sales Voice.com sold by Microstrategy for $30 million

[GeorgeK]

Just announced!

https://www.businesswire.com/news/h...croStrategy-Sells-Voice.com-Domain-30-Million

 

[sgtppr]

edit. see next comment.

 

[sgtppr]

The sell-off of Voice.com was a voluntary exchange, between Microstrategy and Block.One. There was no overpay, because there are 1,000 GTLDs that Block.One could have used (Voice.Horse anyone?), but they made the cost-benefit analysis that the Voice.com asset value iwas at least $30M for them; they made a calculation. Obviously, what a wholeseller pays for an asset or good, has little bearing on what the retail value is to the right buyer.

When you are talking about premium 1-2 word dot-Coms with commercial and/or dictionary meaning, scarcity and use plays a HUGE role in valuation.

The domain speculation industry isn't dying, its being bought out as the premium assets are finite; there are only so many 1-2 word premium dot-Coms with commercial and/or dictionary meaning to go around. For that reason, Block.One was willing to make the $30M purchase because they know more about their business than you do.

Notice the false analogy you use, "I own horse-drawings-night.network" to compare to a digital blue diamond like Voice.com. That is why Microstrategy earned $30 million, and you are stuck playing armchair domain valuation expert.

Lesson in there...

ok boss, i'll make a less hyperbolic analogy. say frogs.com sold for $300 billion.

everything you are saying would also apply to that 'digital blue diamond'

you're pretending that because something is valuable, there is no such thing as an overpay. that's not how valuation works. for domain names or anything else.

 

[J.D.]

ok boss, i'll make a less hyperbolic analogy. say frogs.com sold for $300 billion.

everything you are saying would also apply to that 'digital blue diamond'

you're pretending that because something is valuable, there is no such thing as an overpay. that's not how valuation works.

No, you are pretending there is an objective standard by which to measure the value of a premium 1-2 word dot-Com with commercial and/or dictionary meaning. Hence, your dependence on using extreme numbers like $300 billion to make your case when we have more a more dependable scale. As of today, the largest valuation of a domain name by the major blue chip accounting firms is Cars.com at $872 million!

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/39899/000003989915000006/gci-20141228x10k.htm

So, until a greater valuation point has been reached on an applicable URL asset that is the highest standard we have on that particular domain name but every premium dot-Com is unique. So, even considering the current scale of $0-$872M, the Voice.com deal might be considered a steal in the right context.

Even using your Frogs.com example, it would depend on use. Let's say, a professional sports team franchise was allocated to a new city. Maybe they want to use the nickname Frogs and desire Frogs.com. How much would they be willing to pay? How much would the seller demand? I don't know...but I do know $375K was the sell price for Rangers.com; but is that a starting or ending point for negotiations? If it is a savvy hard-nosed negotiatior like MicroStrategy; it might be the beginning of a email convo - maybe. For others, a dream offer.

To make a claim for an overpay, you would have to provide proof that there is an objective standard by which to measure these unique, scarce and income producing digital diamonds like Voice.com. As of yesterday, Estibot.com had Voice.com valued at $618K; how wrong were they?

But the purchase of $30M of Voice.com as the highest public URL sell to date disproves your claim.

 

[sgtppr]

you are pretending there is an objective standard by which to measure the value of a premium 1-2 word dot-Com

i would say you are pretending there isn't. but yes, that's accurate.

we both know if you could afford to do it, you would not pay $30 million for voice.com. you probably wouldn't even pay $5 million for it. but here you are saying it's a great price for buyer and seller. when you yourself wouldn't pay it.

 

[J.D.]

i would say you are pretending there isn't. but yet, we seemed to have reached agreement. i think domains can be valued and you think beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

but we both know if you could afford to do it, you would not pay $30 million for voice.com. you probably wouldn't even pay $5 million for it.

Again you present a false comparison, an individual domain speculator with no plans to develop the digital asset but only to buy, hold and sell versus development for market share capture. In the Voice.com situation, the buyers are in the BOOMING crypto & mobile/digital communications industry. So what I, as a 3rd rate domain specualtor would pay is irrelevant because I'm a wholeseller not a retailer in need of the income producing asset to improve my web presence, market position and gain more sales.

Also, I don't have a $5M budget, or even $1M, so thats another theoretical argument you are making when we have the concrete evidence of the Voice.com sell for $30M and the Cars.com valuation at the SEC level of $872M.

Do you want to accept the facts as they are; or create your own false reality of how things should be because you say so?

 

[sgtppr]

Again you present a false comparison, an individual domain speculator with no plans to develop the digital asset but only to buy, hold and sell versus development for market share capture. In the Voice.com situation, the buyers are in the BOOMING crypto & mobile/digital communications industry. So what I, as a 3rd rate domain specualtor would pay is irrelevant because I'm a wholeseller not a retailer in need of the income producing asset to improve my web presence, market position and gain more sales.

Also, I don't have a $5M budget, or even $1M, so thats another theoretical argument you are making when we have the concrete evidence of the Voice.com sell for $30M and the Cars.com valuation at the SEC level of $872M.

Do you want to accept the facts as they are; or create your own false reality of how things should be because you say so?

you don't seem to be able to understand the point being made when one makes a comparison between two things, so i will attempt to restrain myself from making another one.

but how much money a buyer has, or what their plans are, don't impact the value of a domain name. since you deny that domains even have an objective value, there isn't much more for us to discuss. i disagree very strongly with you on that.

 

[sgtppr]

What's wholesale price on this? My guess: $250k.

Note that this was my question. What is the wholesale value of voice.com.

 

[J.D.]

Note that this was my question. What is the wholesale value of voice.com.

No, that was ONE of your questions, you asked several in your original post:
I am...in the same industry as the buyer. In that community
Q1: We are debating whether this price was an overpay or not?
Q2: As a domainer i think it was a massive overpay. What say you all?
Q3: What's wholesale price on this? My guess: $250k.

You asked three questions in your original post. I was responding to Q1 & Q2 and you know this from our exchange. Now, I can answer question three because Voice.com was originally purchased by Microstrategy for around $115,000 from what I read on the web. I can't find the citation, but that is the claim.

So, Microstrategy team are savvy investors and negotiators...

 

[GoKaizen]

The plural was an excellent buy at $30k.

https://www.domainsherpa.com/david-ciccerelli-voices-interview/

 

[ThatNameGuy]

Just announced!

George, I know you're pretty well respected around this industry and thanks for sharing. I'm still a relative newbie who still thinks this industry is BY FAR the most screwed up industry on the planet. Here is what I just posted on Morgan Linton's blog a few minutes ago;

"Just to show how screwed up this industry truly is, I just reg'd VoiceSynchronization.com and paid GD a whopping $8.50 for it. GD says the word "Synchronization" is valued at $2,000, "Voice" is a popular keyword, and "VoiceSynchronization" is highly memorable."

George, either I'm drunk or we're all living in the twilight zone. However, like with Donald J. Trump, the entertainment value is absolutely priceless

 

[MSN-Domains]

Essentially a freeroll for the buyers, likely cost them $0 of their own capital, as they probably premined the token. Either way - Token holders paid for a nice EMD. One would not even have to look to see if the company is profitable yet

Kudos to the EOS token holders on the acquisition. Good-time charlie again for the "crypto" domainers strike whilst the iron is hot

 

[Jevsim]

I own the

domain; already received some offers. Still waiting for the suitable one

 

[garptrader]

It should be noted that they already owned Voice.io so yes they could have launched with an alternative domain. But their vision is to take this project mainstream. So it will take a few years to determine whether this domain acquisition was a sound choice. EOS has a billion tokens and currently an approximate $7 billion market cap.

 

[ThatNameGuy]

I see the sale is listed on NameBio now. So far in 2019 this one sale is $30M while the other 42,100 .com domain name sales on NameBio so far in 2019 combine for another $38.4M! A beautiful name, but this was certainly a fantastic price obtained for it.

More Money than Sense? Not knowing any of the specifics or details....could be money laundering? I'd assume the FBI is all over this

 

[Optimal Names]

That is indeed a great sale! We sold the same buyer voice.io at about the same time. 25K. Had no idea who was on the other end as it was a GoDaddy broker request (inbound).

Interesting how MicroStrategy puts forth their domains. Very smart of them. I've seen so many big companies with hundreds, if not thousands, of domains - just parked doing nothing. These folks are smart.

 

[GeorgeK]

Adam Strong was the guest on the DNW.com podcast this week, with coverage of the Voice.com transaction:

https://domainnamewire.com/2019/06/24/adam-strong-voice-com-dnw-podcast-241/

 

[Avijit Roy]

I can see voices.com advertising massively.

 

[frank]

was the sale made from any form of cryptocurrency ? i wonder how much worth telecom industry names would be in different languages

 

[Bla2e]

You can read Mike Mann's reaction over this on twitter.

According to him, his Phone.com has become more valuable now.

 

[Raymond C]

$30m is about 2420 bitcoins