Politico rarely publishes news from the domain industry. But it made an exceptionfor the sale of the domain Meta.fi, apparently because the news can also be considered political. As you know, Facebook underwent a rebrand, changing its name to Meta, and for several months before and after this event, it actively acquired and continues to acquire domain names containing the word meta.
Meta.fi was one of such names. The seller unexpectedly turned out to be Timo Harakka, Minister of Transport and Communications of Finland. In this case, there are no grounds for complaint against the government official, who is also engaged in private business: Harakka registered the domain in 2013, before he got involved in politics and civil service. Today Timo Harakka is one of the most colorful Finnish politicians, famous for his striking statements. For example, in 2019, when British Prime Minister Boris Johnson demanded that parliament be suspended, Harakka commented on the initiative as follows: “Britain is proud of its parliamentary system. And suspending the British Parliament is like banning all saunas in Finland.”
Commenting to Helsingin Sanomat on the sale of Meta.fi, Harakka declined to say how much he got for the domain name. He only said that at the end of the summer he was contacted by representatives of the law firm Hogan Lovells, which represents the interests of many corporate clients, including Facebook. Harakka also added that the negotiations lasted for about a month before the parties agreed on the terms of the deal.
