Thoughts

Andrew Miller

May 4, 2025

Installment Plans for Domains

It was a strong week for us at Hilco Digital Assets , following the highly publicized sale of our Icon*com deal the week before. This week we entered into several new agreements on exact match domain name transactions, from rebrands to upgrades, as well as a very solid .ai sale. We will not be able to disclose pricing on these but will be able to confirm the transactions, which will reveal some very savvy strategic moves by the buyers, some which are market leading companies. It is worth noting that many current acquisitions (ours and our peers) continue to be paid over time in seller financed or installment payment transactions, and especially with venture capital backed deals, this is a key progression for domain name assets. The most important aspect of this is highlighting that the most valuable domains are strong balance sheet assets, and therefore, like so many other valuable assets (homes, cars, art, machinery), can be successfully financed. Another important point is the difference between “leasing to own” and the types of sales we are overseeing. I have historically found “LTO” tend to be smaller, equal payments over time, often used to buy time to see if a purchase later is still of interest. The financed deals we are signing require a significant, often 7 figure, initial payment and the balance either monthly or annually, over time. While some may see this as semantics and simply a question of the numbers, not the format, I believe that the commitment from a purchase and sale agreement is more concrete than in a LTO one.

End Users Announcing DomainAcquisitions

I recently mentioned in the Random Sunday Thoughts  newsletter that it is very rare to have a sale price of a category defining or high value exact match domain be reported, and that we recently had this occur in an unprecedented streak with Chat*com, Rocket*com, Gold*com and Icon*com. The Icon price was reported by the buyer, even with his initial requirement of a NDA. What I find interesting is that by doing so, he has created material PR for his product and company, from thousands of views on social platforms to news stories, all leading to measurable sales. On the heels of that, I got a call this week from a client who recently acquired a high 7 figure  category domain in a deal where we were “Switzerland” and oversaw it for both sides. He was intrigued with the buzz and PR from the Icon deal and despite a strong confidentiality on price, has asked me if I would write a Random Sunday Thoughts post. If the seller approves, you may see that soon.

Can’t Win Them All

Last week, I mentioned, “writing RST while waiting for an email in my inbox that may or may not come, and may or may not be one of those career highlights.” Some people commented that it was a cliffhanger, which was not my intent. Sometimes, I simply use this post to share whats on my mind at the moment. So, the email did come, and the result was not what I hoped for, at least now or yet. But, what I can say is I was the connector between two heavyweight people in a discussion that if it had materialized, would have been arguably the most important domain name transaction of all time. As my friend and team member Daniel Koleshchuk said, in his typical glass half full manner, “it is so awesome and amazing just to have even put that together and have given it a chance”. It was a super long shot, disappointing, but I agree with Daniel.

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