Skip Hoagland is a well known geo domain developer and owner of such beauties as Atlanta.com and Portland.com. Today, Ron Jackson reported in DNJournal that Skip sold MyrtleBeach.com for $6.5 million to Intellistrand.

Not only did the deal deliver a $6.5 million payout to Skip, but he also acquired the remaining 50% interest in a number of other super premium domain properties in which he had been a 50% partner. These included Baltimore.com, Daytona.com, SouthCarolina.com, and Honolulu.com.

This is a huge domain industry news event and a very exciting illustration of geo domain relevance and power. Myrtle Beach is an extremely popular vacation destination and attracts a tremendous number of beach lovers year after year.

Skip Hoagland has one of the most prolific domain name portfolios on the planet. He is known for taking premium geo domains and then constructing functional websites around them. MyrtleBeach.com is a notable example of the synergy created when high-quality generic domain name meets content rich website. 

Congratulations to Skip Hoagland. A well-earned success along the road of hard work.

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The economy is in recession, the stock market near a twenty year low, and unemployment figures worrisome. But the internet is healthy. Just another sign of this is the re-auction of Toys.com which had been sold only weeks ago for $1.25 million.

Update: Toys-R-Us just won Toys.com for $5.1 milllion dollars. The Washington Post article described a heated bidding war between several players with all but two bowing out around the $3,000,000 mark. National A-1, a domain holding company, and Toys-R-Us went on to bid against each other for nearly two hours with National A-1 calling it quits when Toys-R-Us moved up to $5,100,000. Premium domains. Gateways & assets. Say no more.

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The premium domain, Dollars.com, is presently enjoying the highest bid of any name on the auction block at Sedo. With just over two days left to go, the bid is $389,000 ($302,500 EUR). Contemplate for a moment the future of Dollars.com. Financial and investment services? Premium portal for a large international bank? A state lottery website? Maybe a new online department store like Amazon or Overstock?

I remember registering DollarsPlus.com in February of 2000 thinking initially it would make a catchy name for online investing. I eventually let that one drop after recognizing that generic domains were the better focus, and more bankable. I was right. Needless to say, Dollars.com would have been an ideal selection had it been available.

The domain was originally registered in June of 1995. Pretty early for someone to have jumped on the internet domain bandwagon. It appears that Dollars.com has changed hands at least once with a documented sale occurring July 2007 when Rick Latona sold it for $650,000 to Virtual Network SA.

Currently, it is still registered to: Virtual Network SA, and hosted at Network Solutions (who were a leading domain registrar through much of the 1990′s). My online research suggests that some mysterious gyrations have occurred around Dollars.com. There appears to have been one other prior offer via auction, in 2008, leading to a high six-figure bid. However, there is no record that the offer closed in a definitive sale.

Hard to say if this recent Sedo offer will end in a successful conclusion. Remains to be seen. Stay tuned!

Update: Dollars.com did sell for $389,000.

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In an eye-catching press release today, Travelzoo announced that they have purchased the premium domain name, Fly.com, for $1,800,000.

Travelzoo stated in the release that they intend to use Fly.com as a new information website.

Company Senior VP, Brian Clark, said the domain will act as a compliment to the Travelzoo brand offering travelers and advertisers with innovative approaches to finding the best values in travel.

While flights in the U.S. have been plagued by faltering sales and frustrating delays, travel is still a popular escape from the pressures of life. Safe to say that the travel industry will re-emerge as the USA (and the world) eventually crawl out of the current economic slowdown.

Considering that most all markets are presently depressed with fire sales being the norm, acquiring Fly.com makes good sense for a company looking forward … and not behind. As I always say, “Once a domain is gone, it’s gone.” Which is great news when you’re the new owner of a premium web address like Fly.com.

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Rate.com is a pot of gold not yet discovered by corporate America. Just how big are the finance, lending, and credit sectors of American industry? Consider this. In 2007, U.S. single family mortgages were expected to be written in the amount of $2.33 trillion dollars. That was just mortgage lending …  not auto loans, not credit cards, not commercial or business loans.

At the core of this maelstrom of activity is internet advertising. The 2007 IAB Internet Advertising Revenue Report found that internet advertising for 2007 alone was $21.2 billion dollars. That’s an average of over $5 billion dollars (per quarter) that advertisers were spending to gain market share and generate business on the internet. I need to mention that 2007 was the fourth year in a row to set an internet ad spending record. See the trend?

When I first learned about Rate.com, I immediately thought about the numerous banking institutions in Corporate Amercia as well as online aggregator Bankrate.com. Bankrate.com are a successful online company having consolidated, and marketed, a myriad of financial rate information from banks and lenders in every conceivable category. Rest assured, rate information is a valuable product to American consumers and American business. If Bankrate.com’s annual revenue is any indication: $49 million in 2005, $79 million in 2006, and $95 million in 2007. See the trend?

Now, it could just be the domainer in me, but I would much prefer to type in Rate.com, than Bankrate.com. Come to think of it, I would also prefer to type in Nashville.com over something like VisitNashville.com. You get my point. Ironically, guess what Bankrate.com‘s ticker symbol is on the NASDAQ stock exchange? That’s right, it’s RATE.

Joking aside, Bankrate.com is only one of many, many finance & finance-related institutions in the United States. Stop to consider how many varied financial companies exist on a global scale. Any one of them, and only one, could gain a competitive new edge on the financial market … with Rate.com.

The internet is the battlefield where the next war will be won or lost. Question is: which major financial player will recognize the logic, and advantage, in acquiring Rate.com to capture new business … and customers?

What would a Rate.com user be looking for? Likely … the best mortgage rate, the best refi rate, a nice savings account interest rate, a high CD rate, or low auto loan interest rate, etc. Oh, and a better credit card rate for sure. Can’t help but to ponder how many thousands of community, regional, national, and international banks there are that could leap frog the competition with such a premium domain.

You may be wondering just who owns Rate.com. It’s brothers Michael and David Castello. Respectively, the CEO and COO of the Castello Cities Internet Network, Inc (CCIN.com).

The Castello Brother’s first made their mark developing Geodomains such as PalmSprings.com, Acapulco.com, LagunaBeach.com and Nashville.com. Recent projects include Bullion.com, Whisky.com, Banana.com, Daycare.com, Kennel.com, Cost.com, Manicure.com and Traveler.com. Names slated for development in 2009 include Rate.com, Driven.com, Bootleg.com and Sample.com. The Castello Brothers sit on the Board of Directors of Associated Cities and are members of ICANN’s Business Constituency. In 2008, the Castello Brothers were awarded the Domainer’s Choice Award for Domain Ambassadors at DOMAINfest and were inducted into the Geo Hall of Fame at the Geodomain Expo in Chicago.

In closing out this piece, I’d like to thank readers for visiting the PremiumDomains.biz blog, and to also encourage you to become an active member of the domain investment community. It’s an energized industry full of intelligent, creative people … many of whom get little sleep! That’s what happens when passion drives you.

Thank you, Michael Castello and David Castello, for agreeing to let me write about Rate.com. It’s a superb domain name with the kind of genuine industry relevance that will make the evening news.

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It’s not hard to understand this strategic acquisition which occurred near the end of 2008. AT&T (American Telegraph & Telephone Co.) have been around for a long time, and are a true American icon and brand. But they are an older company determined to reinvent themselves and stay relevant in this rapidly changing world.

AT&T operate YellowPages.com which was reported to have been acquired for around $100 million some years ago. YP.com was purchased for $3,850,000, from LiveDeal, who had been providing the expected online yellow pages format that most people are familiar with. Acquiring YP.com will only strengthen AT&T’s online yellow pages dominance.

In this hyper-competitive global economy, grabbing market share requires planful decision-making, good timing and a constant vigilance for accretive opportunities. AT&T score high marks with this one.  

An investment-oriented, forward thinking approach would suggest that buying a premium domain name now … is preferable to purchasing it for multiples later on. Two letter domain names certainly qualify as exquisite properties.

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