Results
The record, and what it does not show.
Below is a selection of acquisitions completed on the buyer's side of the table. It is a partial list by necessity — most of this work is done under terms that keep the buyer, the price, or both off the record, which is generally the reason a buyer hires representation in the first place.
Selected acquisitions
- Wise.com
- Firework.com
- Galaxy.com
- Loyal.com
- Bend.com
- Identity.com
- Keystone.com
- Transform.ai
- Parachute.com
- Engine.com
- Passage.com
What a result actually is
A closed deal is the visible part. The price you did not pay is the rest.
The obvious measure of an acquisition is whether it closed. The more useful one is the gap between what the domain would have cost you approaching it directly and what it cost with representation. That number never appears in a press release, but it is where the fee pays for itself.
Three things move it. Your identity stays out of the valuation until disclosing it helps. Every approach runs through one channel, so the owner never reads competing inquiries as competing demand. And the position is set by someone who spends most of his working life on the other side of this exact negotiation.
The other outcome
Sometimes the result is that you keep your money.
Not every asset should be bought. An owner who will not sell at a rational number, a domain whose strategic value does not survive scrutiny, a price that only works if three optimistic assumptions all hold — these are real outcomes, and reaching them in week two is worth considerably more than reaching them in month six.
Because the fee is contingent on closing, walking away costs me the deal. That is the correct incentive to have on your side. It is also why the recommendation to stop, when it comes, is worth listening to.
What you get either way
- A written valuation you can defend internally
- A clear read on the owner and what would actually move them
- The competitive risk if someone else acquires the asset
- A walk-away number set before contact, not during it