What's new

Capital cities up for sale

DavidL

Top Contributor
Was wondering why they get sold as a package?..
And no I'm not a domainer, hence the reason for the question ;)

I think everybody wants to sell domains as a package. One sale is much easier than five sales.

Be that as it may, I'd be very surprised if a single buyer was found for all of them.

News also own cairns.com.au btw
 

DomainNames

Top Contributor
contacted DG to make an offer for one of them was advised Owners would prefer to sell as package but accepting offers for individual names.
 

findtim

Top Contributor
contacted DG to make an offer for one of them was advised Owners would prefer to sell as package but accepting offers for individual names.

thats going to break down quickly i think, they are playing hardball in the early stages and no doubt they are reading this thread.

the whole package is a VERY narrow market of potential buyers.

with all due respect to mike i'd grab what i could and make a landrush out of it, sell sydney and then tell everyone " jump in now " .

soooooo in the end you just throw one of them away , who cares, made your money on the good ones.

i'm sure there are a lot of phone calls being made right now.

but nobody has answered my question ! is there a DATE or is it first come first served with the right price?

tim
 

DomainNames

Top Contributor
thats going to break down quickly i think, they are playing hardball in the early stages and no doubt they are reading this thread.

the whole package is a VERY narrow market of potential buyers.

with all due respect to mike i'd grab what i could and make a landrush out of it, sell sydney and then tell everyone " jump in now " .

soooooo in the end you just throw one of them away , who cares, made your money on the good ones.

i'm sure there are a lot of phone calls being made right now.

but nobody has answered my question ! is there a DATE or is it first come first served with the right price?

tim

There is a limited market for the top end of Sydney houses ( $20 Million +) But in the end every one of them sells. Often to buyers who come out of nowhere

These names are Diamonds..They are all good, would be very silly and no need to throw any away.

First come first served it seems :)

Easy to contact them and ask questions or make offers! http://domainguardians.com/#contact
 

neddy

Top Contributor
Thanks to Don's (geodomains) email introduction, I met up with the guy that used to own GoldCoast.com.au; Cairns.com.au; GreatBarrierReef.com.au and many more.

I drove up to Kuranda near Cairns last year and bought SunshineCoast.com.au off him. He is a really nice guy, and someone who just happened to be in the right place at the right time many years ago when these domains became available.

From memory, he sold the first name to News Corp about 4 or 5 years ago; and the second a year or so later.
 

DomainNames

Top Contributor
Thanks to Don's (geodomains) email introduction, I met up with the guy that used to own GoldCoast.com.au; Cairns.com.au; GreatBarrierReef.com.au and many more.

I drove up to Kuranda near Cairns last year and bought SunshineCoast.com.au off him. He is a really nice guy, and someone who just happened to be in the right place at the right time many years ago when these domains became available.

From memory, he sold the first name to News Corp about 4 or 5 years ago; and the second a year or so later.

Do you know the $$ they sold for?
 

neddy

Top Contributor
Do you know the $$ they sold for?

I do, but the seller prefers to "fly under the radar" (a bit like you! ;)) - and I must respect that.

It has been my experience that a lot of private buyers and sellers (particularly of higher end domains) prefer not to disclose sales prices (obviously there are exceptions).
 

findtim

Top Contributor
go to the website and type in "pub"

------------------------

my personal opinion: Canberra is THE MOST dud of cities in oz, i have lived there, i have tried to start businesses there, i know many people who live there and it is just HARD YARDS.

I've been working on Canberra for 10 years and still no success ! when the same tactics in other cities take just 3 months !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i just do not know what it is???

if i had to really nail it then it would be that everyone is employed, of course there is small business but basically everyone is employed.

meaning most people do not SEE opportunity, they are SO set in there ways its incredible.

i have made hundreds of phone calls, hundreds of cold calls and never made a sale.

Canberra honestly is like going to Switzerland, there is no real language , everything costs more, and although it seems "planned" nothing seems to happen?

ZOMBIE, comes to mind, i lived there for a year so i think i have a grip on the place, outside of that i have visited @ 20 times in my life first being 1985, always consistant with my above comments.

My most recent visit was jan/2013

on that note, i would not buy canberra dot com au UNLESS i actually LIVED in Canberra and was motivated to take it on, i think it could become GREAT but it needs some $$$$$ to make it happen

over all i like canberra for its culture/ museums etc but i find the people to be to phlegmatic and pessimistic.

once you buy you are going to need to work hard to sell the advertising, break even point is HIGH.

sydney or melbourne are better bets, but still over priced thats why they want to sell it as a set.

lose syd and melb out of the set then the rest DIE in price.

tim

ps: i do realise OMG have nothing to do with this sale, my comments were about the value of canberra v sydney etc
 
Last edited:

DomainNames

Top Contributor
headline news today front page

:):)HEADLINE NEWS____


http://www.news.com.au/technology/h...ains-up-for-sale/story-e6frfro0-1226594288746

SOME of Australia's most iconic online real estate could be snapped up by American corporations in a multi-million dollar package being shopped to large foreign investors.
A suite of five web domains potentially worth more than $3.5 million including Sydney.com.au, Brisbane.com.au; Melbourne.com.au and Adelaide.com.au is up for sale, with interest being especially sought from overseas companies.

Mike Robertson of Brisbane company Domain Guardians, which is brokering the sale, said no price had been set for the the domains, which were first registered almost 20 years ago, but that the package could potentially fetch upwards of $3.5 million.

The high-profile web addresses, which also include Auction.com.au, currently generate revenues of between $50,000 and $137,000 a year, with Sydney.com.au coming up as the number one Google search result for "Sydney''.

Mr Robertson said he had already received inquiries from three Australian companies, but was aiming to sell the addresses as a single package to an overseas investor.

"We're looking to sell to mainly an overseas company, maybe a large international corporation who is a diverse player in the media, retail, real estate and tourism industries,'' he said.

"Any international corporation that's wanting to make a big power play into the Australian market and space, they would be a natural fit."

In 2007 Melbourne.com sold for $700,000, while in America last year Colorado real estate agent Peter Niederman paid a reported "seven-figure sum'' for Denver.com - a city with a population of just over 600,000.

Many other US city domain names have been acquired by large media companies: The New York Times owns Boston.com, newspaper company Media News Group owns LA.com, while NJ.com and Cleveland.com belong to Advance Publications, the owner of link-sharing website Reddit and magazine company Conde Nast.


Read more: http://www.news.com.au/technology/h...le/story-e6frfro0-1226594288746#ixzz2N99eHWMb


Read more: http://www.news.com.au/technology/h...le/story-e6frfro0-1226594288746#ixzz2N99PtVft

NSW GOVERNMENT OWNS AND RUNS WWW.SYDNEY.COM
 

findtim

Top Contributor
yes, well of course they are in "PR spin" mode

i do wish them well and can't wait to see the end result.

i think the hype they are creating is great , unfortunately i think for the value of the domains you could at least spend some bucks on writing new press realises so i don't have to read the same old thing over and over and over and over again !

F it, i gonna send mike my copywriters email address right now


tim
 

Drop.com.au

Top Contributor
There’s been some outstanding coverage on this domain package. Hats off to Mike for the PR work.

Interesting to note that earlier coverage mentioned local Australian companies as potential buyers eg...
“Mr Robertson hopes to interest Fairfax Media and similar size businesses as they have the funds to secure the domains. Fairfax Media, through a transaction with OMG or Boomerang, holds 1000's of generic Australian domain names including Business.com.au which is a large online business directory.”
http://www.international.to/index.p...um-geo-sales&catid=97:breaking-news&Itemid=74

And the pitch has now changed to a “mainly overseas” focus.
"We're looking to sell to mainly an overseas company, maybe a large international corporation who is a diverse player in the media, retail, real estate and tourism industries,'' he said.
"Any international corporation that's wanting to make a big power play into the Australian market and space, they would be a natural fit."
http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/techn...ains-up-for-sale/story-fn7bfu22-1226594288746

At a suggested price of $3.5M maybe the package is a bit too rich for local interests?

Andrew
 

eBranding.com.au

Top Contributor
NSW GOVERNMENT OWNS AND RUNS WWW.SYDNEY.COM

Great domain, given the option I would prefer to own Sydney.com over Sydney.com.au.

Tourism is global and in my opinion most travel/tourism sites are best suited to .com.

Although, this is not necessarily the case for areas that are mostly visited by locals or smaller cities/towns - .com.au will often be the better way to go in that instance.

For those that are interested, here's a list of the main official Australian tourist sites:

http://australia.gov.au/topics/tourism-and-travel/tourist-information

The majority of the sites are .com.
 

DomainNames

Top Contributor
There’s been some outstanding coverage on this domain package. Hats off to Mike for the PR work.

Interesting to note that earlier coverage mentioned local Australian companies as potential buyers eg...

http://www.international.to/index.p...um-geo-sales&catid=97:breaking-news&Itemid=74

And the pitch has now changed to a “mainly overseas” focus.

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/techn...ains-up-for-sale/story-fn7bfu22-1226594288746

At a suggested price of $3.5M maybe the package is a bit too rich for local interests?

Andrew

New Limited, Fairfax Media should both put in bids. If they dont they are crazy.

I cant understand why Fairfax would sell Darwin.com.au instead of developing it. Maybe Fairfax top management was not aware it was part of their OMG/ Fairfax domain assets.

Maybe Fairfax wasnt interested and Mike has moved on to other potential buyers thus the change in press releases and coverage away from Australia to overseas.

Yes Overseas buyers especially USA will pay more, Just hope AUDA doesnt red tape the sale and new overseas ownership too much. If it goes through with an overseas buyer it could open up the door to many new partnerships with far bigger overseas players.

Selling .com.au is too limited by the AUDA policies requring Australia based businesses , Trademarks etc, The USA has huge investment dollars for domain names and online. Australia is still far behind and personally in many cases I have heard of and seen the AUDA eligibility rules has added to that that... In most cases its too hard for foreign investors to get into .com.au domain names and then developing them here . These names sydney.com.au etc are such gems it would be worth a USA corp ( or whoever) buying and developing them in line with the Auda policy eligibility Red tape.

If the Auda Policy was changed the names could be far easier to sell and bring higher dollars probably to foreign investors. ( and before some of you complain Australians can still buy them if they bid higher!!)

Why can anyone in the world buy and sell a .com name? Why are we still stuck with the .com.au red tape for eligibility? It has in no way benefitted the .com.au market and its time .com.au could be registered and sold by anyone who wants the it. ( same as a .com name)

.com.au at policy level has not been managed any better than the .com system and the .com system anyone in the world can buy and then easily resell the name to whoever they want and use the existing time left on the registration period ( no need for new registration, further costs, more auda and ausregistry fees)

Hopefully when they sell the names it will be good news for the .com.au aftermarket, gain some good publicity and open doors to more buyers and happy sellers in Australia AND OVERSEAS
 

findtim

Top Contributor
if it wasn't for the red tape none of us would have a domain to register !

i kinda like the progression the auda have taken over the years, slowwwwwwly letting go.

back when you had to have a business name to register a domain in 2000 , its allowed small business to grab there names even though it took till 2006 for them to realise they needed to, even now we see many businesses that need a website do not have a domain name ( my primary market) .

but by now if you don't own your domain name them its your problem, 3.5mil if i was in government they would no longer be on the market.

tim
 

DomainNames

Top Contributor
Glass half empty.. Glass half Full.

Good luck to the seller, They are sitting on a gold mine and it looks like it will be pay off big time soon no matter what some naysayers think on this forum.

Pretty sure every domainer here would love to own those names and be able to sell them for some good $$. $3.5 Million, $1 Million.. whatever.

Lots of developers, domainers, Investors.. also I'm sure would wish they could afford them but can't.

Would be nice to see them developed by the buyer and become successful

Hope Mike at Domain Guardians keeps the media updated when he sells them.
 

Community sponsors

Domain Parking Manager

AddMe Reputation Management

Digital Marketing Experts

Catch Expired Domains

Web Hosting

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
11,098
Messages
92,044
Members
2,394
Latest member
Spacemo
Top