TheHotList.com Buys HotList.com From Microsoft

Startup pries domain name loose from software giant.

When your startup wants to upgrade its domain name, it’s never a good sign when the domain you want is owned by one of the biggest companies in the world.

That’s what happened recently with “social discovery engine” The Hotlist. The company uses TheHotlist.com as its main domain name. As any domain investor will tell you, this means a lot of people tried to find the site at Hotlist.com. (Remember how Facebook was once TheFacebook.com?)

The problem: Microsoft owned Hotlist.com.

But on Friday the startup managed to finally close on a transaction to buy the domain name from Microsoft. A company representative declined to disclose the purchase price, but said the company has been talking to Microsoft for a couple years about acquiring the domain name.

Congrats to TheHotlist.com. Or should I say Hotlist.com?

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