IS.com domain changed hands for $1,950,000 in February 2021

A recent SEC filing by ironSource has revealed that the elite 2-letter .com domain name IS.com changed hands in February 2021 for USD $1,950,000.

In April, I had noticed that ironSource had acquired the domain name from Xant/InsideSales.com, but the price was not known at the time:

https://twitter.com/GeorgeKirikos/status/1379816817233920000

While the domain ownership details have been masked behind the “Domains by Proxy” service at GoDaddy for many years, the timing of the ownership change could be inferred via the nameserver changes in early February 2021, using the WHOIS history at DomainTools.com.

I did note in April that the price might later become public, as ironSource itself was going public via a SPAC. Patience was rewarded today, as page F-14 of the SEC filing spills the beans, disclosing a domain with a book value of $1,950,000. The very low accumulated amortization is consistent with the timing of the IS.com domain name acquisition in early February 2021, given this is the financial statement for the quarter ending March 31, 2021.

Furthermore, while the table for intangible assets lists a domain name for the quarter ending March 31, 2021, the table lower on the page for the period ending December 31, 2020 does not list a domain name (it only lists technology and customer relationships). This reinforces that the timing of the domain name acquisition was in the first quarter of 2021, consistent with the change of ownership of the IS.com domain name.

Based on these facts, I think it’s safe to conclude with a high degree of certainty that the IS.com domain name changed hands for USD $1,950,000.