Shares in Directions.com will be offered on Friday.
Investing in a fraction of a domain name is about to become closer to reality.
Tomorrow, fractional ownership platform Rally will sell shares in the domain name Directions.com. Investors can chip in as little as $10 for up to 14,000 shares in the domain, for total proceeds of $140,000. A Use of Proceeds tables suggests that the asset seller might retain up to a 45% stake in the domain.
It’s the first time I’m aware of shares in a domain name being offered on a platform.
Fractional ownership could unlock significant value in domain name assets by creating more awareness of domain names as an asset class and enabling smaller investors to pool resources to acquire high-value domain names.
A due diligence analysis from WilyFish (associated with the law firm Greenberg & Lieberman, LLC) for the domain name checks for prior UDRP disputes (none) and grades the domain based on its Whois history, email blacklists, search engine reputation, trademarks, and domain names.
It seems that the domain might have been chosen in part due to its previous sales history. It last sold for $75,000 at NamesCon in 2020.
