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I
you have been watching TV this summer
you probably know all about CBS-TV's hit
series Under The Dome (based on
the Stephen King novel of the same name).
It has been the top-rated show on TV since the
first episode aired in June and has already been
renewed for a second season in 2014. What you
might not have known is how CBS got the UnderTheDome.com
domain name for a bargain price just
a few weeks before promotion for the show hit
the airwaves.
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I
got the story this afternoon when a
reporter for the Arkansas Democrat
newspaper in Little Rock contacted
me for some background on how domain
negotiations work. Reporter Faiz Siddiqui explained that a former
Arkansas legislator was the previous owner
of UnderTheDome.com, a domain he used for
several years as a blog about political
issues. Siddiqui said that in January the
legislator was contacted by a company
that said they were based in Staten
Island, New York and were interested in
buying the domain name for $2,000.
After going back and forth briefly, the
legislator agreed to sell the domain for $7,800.
Soon after the sale was done he saw the
domain being used on national TV by
CBS which came as a big surprise to him as
he didn't know the network was behind the
domain inquiry. |
Image
from Bigstock |
The
newspaper reporter wanted to know if there was
something fishy about a big corporation
hiding their identity when trying to buy a
domain like this. I noted that it is actually par
for the course as most corporations know
that sellers will likely ask for more (often much
more) if they know the inquiry is coming from
someone with deep pockets. You can bet
CBS would have paid a good bit more for that
domain if they had to, so anonymity saved them a
good bit of money - and likewise resulted in the
previous owner leaving some cash on the table.
In the cat and mouse game of negotiating, it can
be a big advantage to know who is on the
other side of the table.
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