Until the middle of this year, the domain name wii.com was owned by Weyerhaeuser Co. of Federal Way, Washington. However, when the negotiations between Weyerhaeuser Co. and Nintendo Co. Ltd. of Kyoto, Japan were concluded, the domain name was in the possession of Nintendo. The final price paid by Nintendo for the domain name may never be known. That's because terms of the financial agreement between the two companies dated August 8 included a nondisclosure clause, demanded by Nintendo, to which Weyerhaeuser agreed.
According to the Tacoma News Tribune:
With the Nov. 19 U.S. launch of its Wii video game console looming — and gamers around the globe drooling in the blogosphere over its arrival — Nintendo wanted control of wii.com.
The domain name wii.com was originally registered in 1994 by Willamette Industries Inc. of Portland, Oregon, known by its stock ticker "wii". Willamette Industries Inc. was later acquired by Weyerhaeuser in 2002. When Weyerhaeuser acquired Willamette Industries Inc., the domain name wii.com was acquired as intellectual property. According to the the Whois.com directory, Weyerhaeuser renewed the domain name until 2009. Wii.com was redirected to guide users to the Weyerhaeuser main corporate website.
Interestingly, in public, Nintendo did not show any interest in the domain name. Indeed, to further reinforce their public non interest in the domain name, according to a May 26 report by vnunet.com, a global information and media company, a Nintendo spokeswoman was quoted as saying:
"To my understanding we are not planning on using that Web site."
However, in private, Nintendo went on a wild acquisition spree.
The company had registered more than 70 wii-related domain names, including WiiCommunication, WiiDiary and WiiKid. Nintendo registered WiiMap, WiiSenior, WiiWords, WiiWorld, NintendoWii - even WiiWii.
Then according to Weyerhaeuser spokesman Frank Mendizabal:
"in late May or early June," Mendizabal said, Nintendo sent an informal e-mail to Weyerhaeuser's public affairs department, asking about the availability of wii.com. "They made an offer. We made a counteroffer, then it went back and forth," Mendizabal said.
But the negotiations stayed within the public affairs and law departments at Weyerhaeuser. The deal, Mendizabal said, never involved an outside expert appraisal of the domain name's value.
Nor will the dollar value show up in any documents Weyerhaeuser, as a publicly traded company, must file with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The SEC requires public companies to report any actions or "material events" that could affect the company's financial statement or stock value. It broadly defines a material event as any circumstance that a reasonable person would consider important.
The exchange of wii.com "didn't come close to that," Mendizabal said.
We may never know the exact amount which Nintendo paid for the domain name wii.com.
Source [azstartnet]
