Salesforce.com is the new owner of the data.com domain name. Domain Name Newswire cited a press release from domain name auctioneer Moniker stating that Salesforce.com purchased the domain name “for an amount that significantly exceeds the $1.5 million reserve.”
According to the Business Insider there are three domains tied for 18th most expensive domain names ever sold, each of which sold for $1.5 million. This list might not be accurate, as Most Expensive names several high dollar domain names not included in Business Insider’s list. Regardless, this is steep price and may put data.com into the top 20 most expensive domains ever sold.
Salesforce.com declined to comment on its plans for the domain. At the time of this writing the domain name does not redirect to any other site. It’s possible that it will redirect to Database.com, or perhaps it will become a new brand for Radian6. It could also be the name of a new service. Or Salesforce.com could just sit on it.
Salesforce.com and its CEO Marc Benioff are no strangers to the buying and selling of expensive domains. The company purchased the Force.com domain in 2007 for an undisclosed sum according to eWeek. Last year, it unveiled its Database.com service, and it’s unknown when it was acquired and how much was paid.
According to Domain Name Newswire, Benioff sold the domain name bill.com to CashView. CashView founder René Lacerte told Domain Name Wire that the purchase price was “nothing like the $500,000 or $1,000,000” that other four letter domain names sold for.
Salesforce.com has been on something of a spending splurge lately. It’s building a new headquarters in San Francisco, and last year it bought Chatter ads during the Superbowl. The spending has been criticized by some analysts. For example, Constellation Research CEO and principal analyst R “Ray” Wang wrote on Twitter that the Super Bowl ads were a waste of shareholder money.
It has also acquired several companies in the past 12 months, including Heroku and Radian6.
