Domain with a long history, might have just sold — CM.com, a
Domain name was deleted in 2013 and registered again in 2015.
CM.com is an extremely valuable two letter domain name. It’s not just that it’s two letters; it’s also a typo of .com.
It’s also a domain name with a unique history.
The domain name was registered in 1997 and was deleted in 2013. It’s unclear exactly why Domain.com deleted the domain in 2013, but it appears the owner was accused of using the domain to send unsolicited email. Deleting a seven-figure domain name for this reason might seem like overkill.
Once it was deleted it couldn’t be registered again. Verisign is forbidden from allowing two letter .com domain names to be registered. Domains that were previously registered are grandfathered, but once this domain was deleted, it couldn’t be re-registered.
In 2014, a couple years following CM.com was deleted by the registrar, a firm came out of the woodwork claiming it owned the domain name in the late 90s and the domain was stolen from its Network Solutions account. It sued Network Solutions to recover the domain name.
At that point, Network Solutions was a disinterested party. The domain was deleted, and it Network Solutions wasn’t even the last registrar to have control over the domain name. It didn’t bother responding to the lawsuit.
A judge ordered Verisign to register the domain name the domain name to the plaintiff.
Since that time, the Whois record for the domain name has essentially been under privacy. It just shows corporate brand registrar CSC as the owner.
This month the nameservers for the domain name changed from Uniregistry parking to CM.nl, which is run by CM Telecom, a mobile services firm in the Netherlands.
This would seem to indicate that the domain name sold. But it’s also possible that CM Telecom is merely leasing the domain name or testing the traffic to see if it converts.
I’ve reached out to CM Telecom for confirmation.
(Hat tip: Jamie)
