Domain Incite reported on the price tag of a deal made five years ago for the rights to manage .BOX, a new generic top-level domain. Both Amazon and NS1 filed applications for the gTLD. Pursuant to ICANN regulations, the contention had to be resolved by an auction. Yet, things did not get that far: the applicants reached a private settlement, and Amazon withdrew its bid.
Such private arrangements are kept secret as a rule, and their amounts are not disclosed, making this deal a rare case. According to Domain Incite, Amazon got $3 million for withdrawing its bid. The new domain fetched a hefty sum: for instance, a similar amount was paid by the company MMX, which won the auction for the right to administer the new .VIP domain name.
It’s worth adding that NS1 intended to use .BOX to provide registrants cloud storage, as a kind of DropBox alternative. However, this idea never came to fruition: the rights to operate this domain were purchased by Intercap this year (the transaction amount has not been disclosed). The new owner wants to make .BOX an open niche domain. The launch dates have not been announced.
