A merger between American Airlines and US Airways could be all but a done deal, based on some recent web domain name purchases.
A report from Domain Name Wire lists 10 domains containing various combinations of the American and US brands.
Maybe this is simply the work of domain squatters seeking to extort money from AA and US if they do merge, you ask? Well, these purchases weren’t the work of some guy who saw a GoDaddy commercial, and probably weren’t done by a Russian scammer, either. The author points out that the names were registered through MarkMonitor, an online brand protection service that only deals with legitimate companies. Anyone registering a domain through MarkMonitor has to provide proof that they own the rights to the names involved, so barring fraud or a security failure at MarkMonitor, it is almost certain these names were actually registered by representatives of American and/or US. Furthermore, the last three names on the list, which play on the AAdvantage and oneworld brands, seem a bit too creative to be the work of a scammer.
The List
- american-usairways.com, .net, and .org
- americanairlinesusairways.com, .net, and .org
- americanusairways.net (the .com was registered by someone else in 2010)
- usairways-american.com, .net, and .org
- usairwaysamerican.com, .net, and .org
- usairwaysamericanairlines.com, .net, and .org
- usandaa.com, .net, and .org
- aadvantageofus.com, .net, and .org
- advantageofus.com, .net, and .org
- oneworldoneairline.com, .net, and .org
Last week, American sought a six-month extension for filing a bankruptcy plan, which could be a signal that they are working on a deal with another carrier. US Airways has been speculated as a bidder for American, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in November 2011.
It is possible that a deal is far from complete, and that AA and US are simply buying these names to protect them in the event that they do merge. But for the airlines to take this huge step in their relationship, at the very least, their merger discussions must have progressed to a very high level.
UPDATE 4:45PM ET: US Airways has confirmed to TheStreet.com that it was behind the purchase of the domain names. US Airways spokeswoman Michelle Mohr told them, “The purchase of these domain names, along with other potential transaction names, is simply step to ensure others do not use our marks in a way that might negatively impact our brand.”
