Pizza.com Sale - Fact or Fiction?
Almost six weeks have passed since the winning 2.6 million dollar bid in the Pizza.com domain name auction, and there is still no word of the transaction being completed from the seller, buyer or broker. The website has not changed; it remains a partially developed page with news that hasn’t been updated in five months, banner advertisements for various restaurants, and a public message board for posting random pizza thoughts. Something I found funny, are the numerous postings from visitors offering their own pizza related domains for sale. For the moment at least, the thing bringing people to the Pizza.com website is not freshly baked pies — it’s the dream of making some fresh cash.
The only thing that’s changed is the domain’s whois record information, which has been switched to a ‘private’ registration. Some would say it’s a sign of the transaction being finished, and the new owner wanting to stay anonymous for a while. Others will point to a cover-up or conspiracy. Ever since this sale was first announced, there’s been no shortage of skeptics claiming it was “Fake”. I guess only time will tell.
I was discussing this topic with my friend RJ, a domainer himself and owner of the Internet’s #1 domain community NamePros.com. I asked who he thought the buyer might be, assuming of course the sale turns out to be legitimate. Was it Pizza Hut? Domino’s? Papa John’s? Some new pizza brand? His answer might surprise you.
“Not necessarily any of the above” he told me. He also said the 2.6 million price tag made it “unlikely to be another domainer looking to flip the name”, which means re-selling to somebody else at a profit. He added “It could be a private group wanting to start a company to centralize the pizza business like Hotels.com has done for the lodging industry.”
Stay tuned folks — I will update when more information becomes available.
[…] Christine Show wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptAlmost six weeks have passed since the winning 2.6 million dollar bid in the Pizza.com domain name auction, and there is still no word of the transaction being completed from the seller, buyer or broker. The website has not changed; … […]
The centralization/hotels.com type of site is interesting… with more of the pizza chains allowing online delivery it seems possible, but I don’t know how it would be profitable. Hotels.com and similar sites operate by guaranteeing a certain amount of sales to the hotels and airlines. Would pizza.com do the same?
It would have to be a different business model.
Hey Tom!
I’m puzzled by this myself.
No matter which type of buyer I try to picture in my head, I wind up with good reasons why they should NOT have purchased the name.
Heh… I have no idea. But it should be fun to watch!
Yeah. I have had good experiences ordering pizza online so far, and I think its a good growth area for food delivery. It is more convenient for the buyer and probably a lot easier on the stores as well. Dominos has a great website, although the pizza is not that good.