Here's the The Lowdown
from DN Journal,
updated daily
to
fill you in on the latest buzz going around the domain name industry.
The Lowdown is
compiled by DN Journal Editor & Publisher Ron
Jackson.
Castello
Brothers Sell Rate.com for $725,000 After Broker
Kate Buckley Finds the Perfect End User
In
one of the five biggest
domain sales reported so far in
2016, the Castello Brothers
(Michael and David, founders of
the Castello
Brothers Internet Network)
have sold Rate.com to online
mortgage broker GuaranteedRate.com
for $725,000. The sale will
be added to our YTD
Top 100 Sales Chart
tomorrow evening when our latest
weekly domain sales report comes out
- most likely with Rate.com
at the top of it). The deal was
brokered by Kate Buckley,
Principal/Founderat the Buckley
Media Group.
Sales
involving corporate buyers at this
level are typically subject to non
disclosure agreements,
but
CCIN President & CEO Michael
Castello refused to accept one
(just as he did in his $3.1
million sale of Whisky.comtwo
years ago). Michael believes
it is in the best interests of the
industry for people to see how
premier domain names are being
valued by end users.
Kate
Buckley Principal/Founder Buckley Media Group
Rate.com
has an interesting history,
one in common with many
of the category-defining
one-word .com domains in the
CCIN portfolio. Ms. Buckley
detailed it for us noting
"The
Castello Brothers acquired
Rate.com in 1997 when Network
Solutions started
retroactively charging $100
for a two year registration
(1995-1997). Prior to this
point, registration was free.
Many of the original
registrants refused to pay the
fee, so some of the best names
dropped that summer and the Castello
Brothers were waiting."
"Michael
was aware of a "seven day
cache" for new
registrations and starting
pumping his registration
requests for names like Rate.com
every hour for seven days
prior to the expiration date.
They all started dropping the
next week and the Castello
Brothers secured most of their
portfolio in a few days."
Kate added, "The
Castello Brothers always used Rate.com
as a mortgage lead generator.
Michael also had the idea of
developing it as a rating portal like
Yelp, but that would have been a huge
undertaking. Given the available
options, they opted for the low
hanging fruit of strong cash flow via
lead generation—which did very well
for them for many years."
Michael
Castello told us, "Rate.com
is a great brand that will now
be marketed by one of largest
up-and-coming mortgage firms.
This sale will help the whole
domain name industry at a time
when we do not see a lot of
high end priced sales. Great
names need to be with great
companies and after 20 years
of ownership, Rate.com has
now found the perfect home.
I look forward to seeing it
advertised and marketed on a
grand scale by Guaranteed
Rate.”
We
asked Ms. Buckley for more
details on how she went about
bringing Rate.com and Guaranteed
Rate together.
"For
me, effective domain brokering
is one part brand strategy,
one part sleuthing and one
part matchmaking. When I begin
brokering a name, I start by
identifying how end users
would most intuitively use
the name and then work from
there. Most people, when they
hear, Rate.com, immediately
think mortgage rates, so I
started there. I made a list
of top national lenders who
would benefit from acquiring a
branding juggernaut like
Rate.com and then started researching their
current branding and growth
strategy—that’s where the matchmaking
comes in."
Michael
Castello President, CEO &
Co-Founder Castello Cities Internet
Network
"I
pride myself on brokering deals that
benefit all parties concerned, and
it’s important to me to match the
right name with the right
company. I knew, based on Guaranteed
Rate’s growth, positioning, branding
and commitment to innovation, that
they would be the best
possible acquirer of Rate.com - and
here’s one major reason why -
regardless of any branding they’d
done in the past, Guaranteed Rate was
not an optimal name for them to
continue to scale and disrupt for
one major reason—most people can’t
spell "guaranteed.” Rate.com is
so instantly memorable that it
will impact their bottom line immediately.
And
they got that. Their CEO and CMO are
smart, passionate, innovators and immediately
saw the value in acquiring a
premium category-defining domain
like Rate.com. They were a
pleasure to deal with, and all parties
are extremely pleased with the terms
of the deal," Kate concluded.
One
other note today, THE
Domain Conference,
that will be returning to the Hyatt
Regency Pier 66 Hotel in Fort
Lauderdale, Florida for
their 2016 show September
10-14, has released a
new
promotional
video in which 10 well-known
figures from the domain
industry (including Michael
Castello) give (David
Letterman style) the top 10
reasons to attend the event.
You can check that out
below:
We need your help to keep giving
domainers The
Lowdown, so please email [email protected]with any interesting information you might have. If possible,
include the source of your information so we can check it out (for
example a URL if you read it in a forum or on a site
elsewhere).
