Rocket spends $14 million to secure its namesake domain

Rocket Companies, the parent of Rocket Mortgage, paid a reported $14 million to acquire the domain name Rocket.com.

The purchase, which was initially reported by DomainInvesting.com, was said to be from defense contractor L3Harris Technologies Inc. Rumors of the deal began in early September. The transaction was referenced in a recent filing by L3Harris with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Rocket CEO Varun Krisha acknowledged the transaction in Tuesday’s third-quarter earnings call. He said that the Rocket brand is evolving and one of the first steps in the process involved the “acquisition of Rocket.com, a site that will unify the homeownership experience across home search and mortgage in the coming months.”

Rocket reported a 28% increase in mortgage production and gains in market share for the period, according to executives. But the company posted a GAAP net loss of $481 million from July to September, largely due to an $878.3 million loss in the fair value of its mortgage servicing rights (MSRs).