Late last year, we posted our first article about Florida Reprographics filing for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection.
We’ve done a number of follow-up posts since then.
This morning, I decided to check to see if Florida Reprographics’ web-site was back up and running. For many years, Florida Reprographics’ web-site address was www.flrepro.com. After Florida Reprographics filed for bankruptcy, its web-site was shut down. I don’t know why that happened. The company did continue on in business.
Well, this morning, when I checked www.flrepro.com, a notice came up saying the web-site was under construction.
I checked to see if there was another web-site address for Florida Reprographics; when I did that, Google Search suggested I try www.flrepro.net. When I entered that web-site address, I was automatically re-directed to http://rapidblueprint.com. Rapid Blueprint, one of Tampa’s oldest reprographers and one of Florida Reprographics’ long-time competitors
I’ve not seen any information, nor heard any information, that would indicate that Rapid has acquired Florida Reprographics. Nonetheless, Rapid found a way to re-direct those searching for Florida Reprographics to its (Rapid’s) web-site.
Clever, but is that fair play?
Posts
Rapid Blueprint owns the .net domain. The date of purchase/renewal was February of 2011.
ReplyDeleteThe odds are the domain dropped and Rapid purchased it. This over-simplified, but a domain drops when the original owner doesn't renew it and it is available for purchase in the open market.
You can set up a domain watch with most domain services and it will inform you when any of the domains you are watching are about to drop.
The .com dropped on June 23rd and the odds a broker owns it. Brokers usually outbid individuals for domains that are higher in search engine rankings.