A question

faceofjem · Nov 2, 2012

My boss has been offered a huge sum of money for a domain he owns. He wants me to research why they are willing to pay so much for it. How do I research this?

Jem

zehrila · Nov 2, 2012

What is the domain name? you can PM me. You first need to be assured that offer is legitimate from a legit company and you are not being victim of some scam.

There could be many reasons for high end offers, probably domain is exact match to their brand name or is short key word enriched domain!

faceofjem · Nov 2, 2012

He has checked out the US Lawyer to make sure he is legit, and he is. I don't want to post the domain as it's not my place to do it. The offer was for £100,000. It seems increadibly high, but it is a 4 letter word with .com. so maybe it's not that high? How do I find out what they are going to use it for?

zehrila · Nov 2, 2012

faceofjem said:
He has checked out the US Lawyer to make sure he is legit, and he is. I don't want to post the domain as it's not my place to do it. The offer was for £100,000. It seems increadibly high, but it is a 4 letter word with .com. so maybe it's not that high? How do I find out what they are going to use it for?

If it is 4 letter pronounce able .com with no real dictionary meaning, then 100k is pretty good money, take it and celebrate. If it is 4 letter dictionary word, then it depends, no one would be able to appraise without actually seeing the domain.

Edwin · Nov 2, 2012

faceofjem said:
He has checked out the US Lawyer to make sure he is legit, and he is. I don't want to post the domain as it's not my place to do it. The offer was for £100,000. It seems increadibly high, but it is a 4 letter word with .com. so maybe it's not that high? How do I find out what they are going to use it for?

Does it matter what they want to use it for?

What you have to ask yourself is:
A) Has your boss ever received other offers even remotely close to that one?
B) Does the name receive a steady stream of unsolicited offers?
C) How much would £100,000 change your boss's business prospects?
D) How key is the name to his business?

If the answers to the above are "none", "no not really", "a lot" and "not much" (or an approximation of these) then who cares who the buyer is or what they want to do with the name... take the money and run very fast!

It's good to get "market value" from the deal, of course, but sometimes by over-analysing certain aspects ("what's it hypothetically worth IF we could ever find another buyer") you're missing the obvious ("£100,000 is a huge deal to us")

namealot · Nov 2, 2012

To add to others who cares who they are its show me the money...
Knowing there intended use can help e.g. they want it for a brand yes that can mean it has high value to them but doesn’t mean anyone else would see it as the same value now or ever?

You can start with asking them why and if the law firm is acting for a third party? They may not tell you then again they may? Not sure what legal disclosure rights are? Formal or informal etc

Check owners of other TLD’s and cctlds, prices and when they sold, if there developed if they are check tax returns, Turnover Company’s information etc Google the word not just g com but, de. co.uk .jp etc and other search engines also, check word meaning in other languages? Check acronyms, abbreviations, companies called the same word or similar. look for patterns of similar words or owners of them, Google the lawyers name, there company, there address etc see if there it comes up with any one they represented etc check there linkedin etc Any new patents, trends, inventions etc you can try and negotiate conditions of sale + % of future increase in sale over 1. 5. 10 years etc

You could do all this and more and draw a complete blank if your boss is trying to squeeze them then really he should think of employing a specialist negotiator or someone who knows what rocks to look under e.g. private detective etc rather than asking someone who doesn’t...