How Nintendo got wii.com away from Weyerhaeuser

Here’s a short version of a long article we found about how Nintendo got the wii.com website away from Weyerhaeuser: according to Redding Business News, “wii.com” belonged to Weyerhaeuser Co. of Federal Way, Washington. So how much did Nintendo pay to buy the site?

Nobody knows – said the article, which almost made my whole research process almost a waste of time. But there’s a lot of interesting stuff:

• Willamette Industries Inc. of Portland was known by its stock ticker ID “wii” – and they registered the domain name “wii.com” back in 1994. Weyerhaeuser bought Willamette Industries in 2002 and got wii.com – it belongs/belonged to them until 2009.
• In May Nintendo said they weren’t interested in the wii.com site. But Nintendo had spent that month registering everything that had “Wii” in it (“WiiWii” is our favorite).
• In June, Nintendo emailed Weyerhaeuser’s public affairs department.
• Everything else is a secret. Weyerhaeuser claims that the amount Nintendo gave isn’t enough to affect the financial statement or stock value of the company. Because it’s not enough, they don’t even have to reveal the amount when they file their annual reports with the government as a publicly traded company.

How much do websites sell for? As usual, the dollar values are US dollars:

• According to Domain Name Journal, wii.us sold for $ 2,500 in a private sale, but the value of wii.com is “approximately $ 5,000 to $ 250,000.”
• The Norwegian government paid $ 700,000 for NAV.no (the initials of a new government agency) – otherwise NAV.co “would have been lucky to sell for $ 1,000.”
• A Danish corporation paid $ 1 million for tdc.com and vip.com sold for $ 600,000.

Meanwhile, QJ can be yours for $ 240 million.

Here’s a short version of a long article we found about how Nintendo got the wii.com website away from Weyerhaeuser: according to Redding Business News, “wii.com” belonged to Weyerhaeuser Co. of Federal Way, Washington. So how much did Nintendo pay to buy the site?

Nobody knows – said the article, which almost made my whole research process almost a waste of time. But there’s a lot of interesting stuff:

• Willamette Industries Inc. of Portland was known by its stock ticker ID “wii” – and they registered the domain name “wii.com” back in 1994. Weyerhaeuser bought Willamette Industries in 2002 and got wii.com – it belongs/belonged to them until 2009.
• In May Nintendo said they weren’t interested in the wii.com site. But Nintendo had spent that month registering everything that had “Wii” in it (“WiiWii” is our favorite).
• In June, Nintendo emailed Weyerhaeuser’s public affairs department.
• Everything else is a secret. Weyerhaeuser claims that the amount Nintendo gave isn’t enough to affect the financial statement or stock value of the company. Because it’s not enough, they don’t even have to reveal the amount when they file their annual reports with the government as a publicly traded company.

How much do websites sell for? As usual, the dollar values are US dollars:

• According to Domain Name Journal, wii.us sold for $ 2,500 in a private sale, but the value of wii.com is “approximately $ 5,000 to $ 250,000.”
• The Norwegian government paid $ 700,000 for NAV.no (the initials of a new government agency) – otherwise NAV.co “would have been lucky to sell for $ 1,000.”
• A Danish corporation paid $ 1 million for tdc.com and vip.com sold for $ 600,000.

Meanwhile, QJ can be yours for $ 240 million.