Report: LasVegas.com Deal Valued at Nearly $90 Million

Elliot Silver
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6

George Kirikos is reporting that LasVegas.com sold in 2005 in a deal valued at nearly $90 million over 35 years. The source of his tweet is a Vegas.com SEC filing from earlier this year that discusses the purchase agreement for LasVegas.com dating to 2005.

Here are some of the details from the SEC filing that spells out the value of this deal:

“In June 2005, VEGAS.com, LLC entered into an agreement for the purchase of LasVegas.com. The agreement specified that a $12,000,000, one-time payment be made upon execution of the agreement along with monthly payments of approximately $83,000 for 36 months, $125,000 for the next 60 months, and then $208,000 for the next 36 months. Per the terms of the agreement, after June 30, 2016, following the 132 initial monthly payments, VEGAS.com, LLC in its sole discretion may terminate the agreement and forfeit the domain name. If VEGAS.com, LLC chooses not to terminate the agreement, they will continue making the monthly payments of approximately $208,000 until June 30, 2040, at which time the seller will transfer the domain name to VEGAS.com, LLC without further payment or cost to VEGAS.com, LLC.”

There are more details about the transaction within the SEC filing if you are interested in reading more about the deal and its value.

I exchanged a couple of emails with George this morning, and he shared the math that shows the value of this deal:

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Blog Comment Tip: Don’t Try to Sell Names

Elliot Silver
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4

Domain blogs would seem like a good place to sell domain names. There is a captive audience of people within the domain business, and many people who read blogs buy domain names on a regular basis. Unfortunately, the comment section is not a good place to sell domain names.

I have to deal with comment spam on a regular basis. Usually, the spam is caught by the Akismet spam filter, but occasionally it gets through. Akismet is not as good at catching people trying to sell domain names as it is at catching spammy links to porn, pharmacies, and other blog comment spam. This means that I (and other blog publishers) have to manually mark these comments as spam.

The vast majority of comments that have domain names for sale contain

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Close Out Old Sales

Elliot Silver
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4

A few days ago, I listed SSSN.com and PRRR.com for sale via Embrace.com. Unfortunately, the domain names were not sold, and I am happy to continue holding them until a buyer is willing to pay my asking prices. One important thing I did this morning was delete the sale post on Embrace.com. I think people should remember this step when conducting a sale.

I set up the sale page with buy it now links from Escrow.com. I think they make buy it now listings easier for buyers to execute quickly. The one downside is that I don’t think you can set up an expiry period for these links. For instance, if I list a domain name for sale for $5,000 today, someone could theoretically use the link to set up a transaction in 10 years from now. With the crazy market values of some domain names, it would be problematic if I give someone the ability to buy a name in the future at today’s prices.

When you use buy it now pricing on domain names,

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Get a Referral From the CEO

Elliot Silver
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0

A couple of years ago, I reached out to a business colleague when I was looking to sell a domain name. He gave me the contact information of  a friend of his who is CEO of a medium-sized company (LinkedIn says 51-200 employees) that we both  thought might be interested in the domain name.

When I reached out to the CEO, I assumed he wouldn’t be the best person to ask about the domain name. Instead, I asked him if I could contact the person who manages  the company marketing to discuss the domain name opportunity. He said that would be a good idea, and he provided the employee’s email address and phone number. I then emailed the Director of Marketing at the company, making sure to mention that the CEO referred  me to him to discuss the domain name. The company ended up buying the domain name from my company.

I am not sure how much

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You Win Some, You Lose Some

Elliot Silver
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17

About a  month ago, I listed a group of domain names for auction on NameJet. The majority  of the domain names I listed for sale were acquired within the last 18 months or so. The domain names came up for auction last week. Some of the names sold for more than I paid, and others sold for less. Overall, I  lost a bit of money on the auctions.

My business model was built on buying and quickly selling domain names. This model has been altered over the last few years, and I have been buying more domain names for longer term holds. Domain names like Lilac.com, Embrace.com, Franks.com, and RightAway.com are either long term holds until the right buyer comes around or not for sale. This is partly by choice and partly a result of the market. Sales to other domain investors are more difficult these days, and great names are harder to find at reasonable prices. I would rather keep my better domain names until the right buyer makes the right offer.

Even though my model has shifted, I still like to

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Mike Mann Reports Aux.com Sale

Elliot Silver
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9

Mike Mann just announced that his company sold the three letter Aux.com domain name for $100,000. The news was announced in a Twitter tweet and public Facebook post:

In an update on the Facebook post, Mike mentioned that he acquired acquired the domain name for $30,000 in 2008. Based on a screenshot from earlier this year it appears the original asking price was $300,000.

Whois records show that Aux.com is

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