An SEC filing reveals a six-figure payday for a major travel brand.
Founded in 2016, Weekengo GmbH developed a travel platform using the Weekend.com domain name, which proved to be extremely popular and resulted in over one million downloads of the Weekend.com app.
The domain played a substantial part in the company’s overall branding, but how did a four-year-old company end up with Weekend.com? It turns out that New York-based travel company Travelzoo is to thank.
According to a recently discovered SEC filing, Travelzoo held a 33.7% share in Weekengo GmbH after a $3.67 million investment in the German company. Travelzoo seemingly retained ownership of the Weekend.com domain name but licensed its usage to Weekengo GmbH.
In January 2021, another major travel company, Trivago, announced that it was to acquire Weekengo GmbH, taking 100% ownership of the company. In the process, Travelzoo sold its 33.7% stake to Trivago for $2.9 million. Interestingly, a Travelzoo SEC filing (page ten) suggests that the company negotiated the sale of Weekend.com and the accompanying trademark to Trivago separately.
With Weekend.com vital to the operation of Weekengo, Trivago paid a reported $822,000 to Travelzoo for the domain name and trademark. Travelzoo’s SEC filing states:
Concurrently with the sale of the shares, the Company also sold the domain name and trademark “weekend.com” to trivago in exchange for a payment of $822,000. The Company recorded $822,000 gain in General and administrative for the sale of the domain name and trademark “weekend.com” in 2020.
While the sale cannot be charted as a domain sale due to the addition of a trademark in the deal, it’s still a notable behind-the-scenes transaction for a premium domain that has only come to light in an SEC filing. According to George Kirikos, Weekend.com previously traded for $200,000 in 2000.
This news was originally tweeted in April by George Kirikos after the discovery of the sale in another SEC filing. Travelzoo’s 10-Q, linked above, offers more detail on the whole sale.
Wow, it was a package deal?
That makes it sweeter.
Samer