Earlier this morning, Amazon announced the launch of a new product called Amazon Local Register. In a press release, the company announced that this product is “a secure card reader and mobile app that provides local businesses with the tools they need to quickly and easily accept credit and debit cards from a smartphone or tablet and keep track of their growing business.”
Smartly, Amazon was able to acquire the LocalRegister.com domain name before the product launch, as reported by Dot Weekly and Domain Name Wire. Even though the product is called Amazon Local Register and Amazon will likely integrate it within its Amazon.com website, it is critical that they control the LocalRegister.com domain name for security and competitive reasons.
I learned that the former owner of LocalRegister.com was Chad Folkening of Global Ventures and co-founder of Domain Holdings. I reached out to Chad to get some information about this sale, and although the price is subject to a non-disclosure agreement, he was kind enough to share some information about the sale and insight about a sale such as this.
Chad’s company owned the domain name for approximately 8 years prior to the sale, and the company’s plans were to develop it into a “local directory type profiling system.” Purchase inquiries for LocalRegister.com were made via multiple channels, and it was sold it through a broker partner of Domain Holdings. Chad was not aware that Amazon was the buyer until after the sale was agreed upon, but he was certain it would be “commerce related” due to the nature of the domain name.
Chad offered a couple of final thoughts on this deal:
“Most big brands only use these url assets for protection and drive the business to a subdomain on their main brand. They then often expand down the road on the individual domain to spin off the brand into a separate entity. Thanks again Amazon, you helped make Global Ventures and Domain Holdings one of the leading and oldest domain experts around.”
You can read additional comments from Chad about the domain name in the comment section of the TechCrunch article.
It was wise of Amazon to secure LocalRegister.com now rather than in the future, and it looks like Global Ventures is very happy with the deal.
