TrueCar.com Acquires True.com for $350,000

 

On Twitter this morning, Sedo broker Dave Evanson reported that he and Negar Hajikhani co-brokered the sale of True.com, and the buyer and new registrant is TrueCar.com, a car pricing and comparison website. True.com was purchased for $350,000 in an all cash deal. I understand that  Sedo became the brokerage of record approximately one month ago, and the domain name was purchased for the asking price set by the seller.

After Sedo was able to secure this exclusive listing, Dave Evanson approached TrueCar.com about the opportunity to purchase True.com. According to Dave, I saw their TV commercials for truecar.com and I knew it was a perfect fit.” For the time being, True.com is being used as a landing page and there’s a message that seems to indicate that the domain name will be used in conjunction with the TrueCar website, but it seems like they are going to continue with the current branding for the company.

Prior to the sale, True.com was used as a dating website. Prior to that, the domain name appears to have been owned by a company called True Systems. You can see how the website looked over the years by visiting Archive.org and clicking the various entries.

TrueCar was founded in 2005. According to a December 12, 2013 report on DowJones.com, the company recently received an investment of  $30 million from Paul Allen’s Vulcan Capital. According to the company’s entry in CrunchBase, TrueCar had received other rounds of funding over the years, including a $200 million investment back in 2011.

Kudos to Dave for knowing who to approach at the company because sometimes getting in the door and getting the deal in front of a decision maker is the most difficult aspect of a transaction like this. Also, kudos to TrueCar for acquiring an exceptional domain name. Not only should this name have value to them, but it’s a valuable asset to own.

Domain Gang was the first to blog report the sale.

Elliot Silver
Elliot Silver
About The Author: Elliot Silver is an Internet entrepreneur and publisher of DomainInvesting.com. Elliot is also the founder and President of Top Notch Domains, LLC, a company that has closed eight figures in deals. Please read the DomainInvesting.com Terms of Use page for additional information about the publisher, website comment policy, disclosures, and conflicts of interest. Reach out to Elliot: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn
  1. Great buy for TrueCar.com. And it was very cheap. I think it’s a much better value per dollar than the massive ad campaign they’re on.

  2. Undervalued! Domain is worth much more. Congrats to buyer. Seller did wrong choice. Sedo sells anything for anything, just to get commission. Shame!

    • Yes elliot, but i think it’s a good idea for them(brokers) to advise the seller if they see that the name has got more value than what the seller has tagged!!

    • Yes, you would think that for 10%-20% commission that would be the case, but unfortunately it’s not, Sedo works more for the buyer who is the money source, and it’s the seller who pays for it and is also expected to negotiate on price far more than the buyer is. Every time when a serious buyer acquired Sedo to broker one of my domains, I was asked to reduce it, and “Can you please justify your price?”, really?

      And BTW, did Dave Evanson or Negar Hajikhani obtain permission from the buyer to publish the sale?

      • “Every time when a serious buyer acquired Sedo to broker one of my domains, I was asked to reduce it, and “Can you please justify your price?”, really?”

        If the buyer engaged Sedo in your situation, then the buyer was the party represented by Sedo. Of course they wanted you to reduce your price if it was higher than their client’s budget. ITheir job is to get the best deal for their client, the buyer.

        In the case of representing the seller, like in the case of True.com, Sedo and the seller must have had a conversation to decide the price. There are many factors that are used to determine an asking price, and it’s not just a matter of setting the highest price possible. The domain market is illiquid at the highest levels, and perhaps the buyer wanted $350,000 cash now rather than a potentially higher payout at some future date that may or may not come. None of us are privy to those details.

        “And BTW, did Dave Evanson or Negar Hajikhani obtain permission from the buyer to publish the sale?”

        That’s not my concern, and I don’t know why it would be your business either. I saw Dave published it, and I asked some questions, which he was kind enough to answer. A number of things in my article were already public.

      • @ Elliot,

        Yes, in that one case the buyer paid Sedo to broker the sale, and I can understand your point in regard to Sedo working to reduce the price on the buyers hehalf, but what I find so outrageous is the seller is on the hook for paying 100% of the commission in addition to lowering the price… In the end, buyer gets great price, seller gets the shaft..
        In this particular instance I had to increase the price to cover the commission, which most likely blew the sale.

        But even in instances when the buyer is directed to Sedo to buy a domain, Sedo goes out of the way to convince sellers to reduce the selling price, In the example of TRUE.com, I have no doubt in my mind Sedo did the same.

        The whole concept that the seller pays 100% commission is BS, Buyer want’s to use a broker and escrow service?, great, let them pay for it or at least give buyer and seller the option to spit it.

        As for obtaining permission from the buyer to publish the sale, it’s as much of my business as it yours discussing a domain you don’t own or have any interest in.

        And did somebody mention whining and complaining?

        http://www.dnforum.com/search.php?searchid=7846900

        • My guess is that Sedo has a publicity clause built into the agreement that the buyer or seller could potentially request to have removed, but that is a guess. I am sure that if either company had any concerns, they would have addressed them with Sedo, hence my perplexion about why you (with nothing at stake) care about this issue.

          Your DNF thread yields no results. Not sure if it’s a dynamic search or an incorrect link. Perhaps the thread title will help me find it.

  3. As the company’s name is TrueCar Inc, I thought Truecar.com is perfect for branding. Is it for defensive purpose that they acquired True.com and maybe have it forward to Truecar.com? Is it possible to brand a company name using just an adjective? Will ‘True’ be enough as a brand? Do you know any major companies using a single word which is an adjective as their brand? I’m curious about it.

    • The new website indicates something else

      (“AN ECOSYSTEM OF DATA
      DRIVEN COMPANIES
      COMMITTED TO BRINGING
      TRANSPARENCY TO
      COMPLEX
      MARKETPLACES.
      SEE OUR FIRST
      EXPRESSION OF THIS AT
      TRUECAR.COM
      AND STAY TUNED FOR WHAT’S NEXT)

  4. It can be argued that the seller sold it too cheap, but
    when you have a serious, cash-ready buyer wanting to wire
    three-hundred and fifty thousand dollars into your bank account, it’s hard to say no.

    The inner dilemma is, do I hold out and hope for $500,000 some day (and that day may NEVER come) or do I take the cash offer.

    Nice sale!
    Aron

  5. At $350,000 it definitely seems like it was undersold. It looks like a lot of people are getting cold feet with these new gtld’s coming and are putting prices on premium domains that we have not seen in the past. Lots of great names being sold lately for what seems to be low amounts. Personally I don’t like the name True Car as a brand but throw enough money at something and anything can become a brand. Can True.com become a car sales brand? I don’t think it can so this definitely seems like a purchase just to keep someone else from using the name. I think True Car originally started out as Zag.com which is another phenomenal domain.

  6. New GTLD’s would not have posed much threat to True.com, it is a pretty bold domain on it’s own, without knowing what is going on in the owner’s life, hard to figure out their reasoning. They could have got married, want a down payment for a house, financial issues, who knows, it is all about timing, and they had money on the table, and took it.

    You could be holding many a generic domain with mid 5 figure offers sometimes for years, it takes a special time of buyer to plunk down a nice 6 figure all cash number, no financing.

  7. I operate and live in Thailand for the past few years,and “true.com” is a ideal fit for alot of companies.In answer to someones question,there is a “true” internet and phone etc company here,they are HUGE….and their name? Just TRUE.co.th they might have paid a HUGE premium for that name.But I guess that is the advantage of living somewhere else,you get to know the in and out’s of the place,Horizon.

  8. On a side note, if you have the money and think it sold too cheap, now would be a good time to contact owners of similar quality names and make your low 6 figure offers using this one as a comp to get your favorable deal.

  9. It seems like they plan on using the name to promote more sites using “True” as the brand keyword. The True.com landing page says

    “We are True, an ecosystem of data driven companies committed to bringing transparency to complex marketplaces” See our first expression of this at TrueCar.com

    TrueTruck.com and TrueBoat.com both point to TrueCar.com so it seems they are going to expand into other areas and promote every company under the True.com domain. Similar to how Virgin.com is a hub for all things Virgin.

  10. A lot of complaining from the Peanut Gallery – you know who you are.

    Those numnuts that whine and complain about this great sale, here’s how a brokered sale works (perk your elf ears up): The broker works for the seller, and the best interest of the seller is as high of a price as possible. Sometimes, the seller wants money NOW, as opposed to money LATER. So a sale in this price range should not be surprising; better names have sold for less. For the record, Dave Evanson is a true professional and I am sure that the last thing he is concerned about is his ‘commission’ from the sale.

  11. TRUE is dead! Long live (the lessons learned from) TRUE.

    Don’t screw your members! Don’t use fakesters. Focus on the longer term. This was a great missed opportunity. Its also a lesson in branding. TRUE seems like a great name, but it isn’t. Its way too generic. A brand is a position in someones mind that you own. TRUE was always challenging as a brand.

    Mark Brooks: editor, OnlinePersonalsWatch.com
    usa 212-444-1636, uk 020-81331835

  12. True car bought it for a bargain. I sold it to True Beginnings for 750,000 in 2006. True Systems. Cash Deal. Direct deal, no brokers. Why bother if one can negotiate. Thought that I should have held on to the name but not so much. Domain names are declining BIG.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Recent Posts

Squadhelp Adds Escrow.com as a Payment Option

1
Squadhelp has added Escrow.com as a payment option for buyers. The addition of the Escrow.com option was shared by ARIYAS on X this morning: 👍...

Some Thoughts on .AI Domain Names

8
There is no question that .AI domain names have become a hot topic of late. With considerable amounts of venture funding flowing into AI...

Handoff to Dan on Imported Leads Can be Confusing

0
I've been using the lead import option at Dan.com more regularly. Although the 5% commission is not ideal, transactions tend to move more quickly...

ArtificialIntelligence.com Goes Up for Sale

11
I tried to buy the ArtificialIntelligence.com domain name multiple times over the last 10 years. The emails I sent to the registrant went unanswered,...

EU Gives More IP Protection to Food & Drink Producers

0
Did you know that some well-known food and drink varieties are protected intellectual property regulations? Popular types of drinks and foods that are protected...