ICM Registry: Sex.xxx Sells for $3 Million

According to an email and press release I received this morning from Stuart Lawley, Chairman and President of ICM Registry, the Sex.XXX domain name just sold for $3 million. This deal is “part of a groundbreaking $5 million, multi-year deal with ICM Registry.” The buyer is a company called Barron Innovations, and they acquired “more than 40 Premium Generic Keyword Domains” as part of this large deal. The payment terms were not announced.

Based on the Domaining.com list of the largest domain name sales of all time, this sale would rank as one of the 25 largest publicly reported sales. The $3 million reported price tag ties the sales of Candy.com, Vodka.com, and Loans.com, all of which are recorded on the list at $3 million each. Sex.com was reportedly sold for $13 million in 2010.

The press release contains much more information about this sale, and I published it below for you to read:

Using CrunchBase to Find a Domain Buyer

There are many ways to find a buyer of a domain name. I’ve discussed how to use LinkedIn to find a domain name buyer, and I also think CrunchBase could be a helpful tool to identify prospective buyers as well.

Generally, I use Google the most regularly to find a domain name buyer. I search the keyword term in Google, and I can usually create a list of companies to target. If I was interested in selling EventManagement.com, I could search Google to find companies that would describe themselves as event management companies or find prospects that offer event management software. This has been most effective for me in finding companies that may have an interest in buying domain names.

CrunchBase can be searched for these prospects in a similar fashion, and it gives me additional reference information like funding, company creation date, and founder information. One of the biggest advantages to CB is that I can see how much money a company has raised and when the funds were raised. A company that is newly flush with cash may be more likely to acquire a great domain name in the aftermarket than a company that isn’t profitable and hasn’t had a funding round in years. I can also see what other products and services the company offers, and do additional research to see if the company tends to be acquisitive when it comes to domain name assets.

One limitation to CrunchBase is that

Garry Chernoff Sells Scada.com for $110k

Last week, I published an article about Garry Chernoff’s sale of Jet.com, which is now reportedly owned by the founder of Diapers.com, Mark Lore. Although the sale of the Jet.com domain name was private, I learned about another nice sale that Chernoff’s company (NetIncome Ventures) just closed. Scada.com was sold for $110,000 in a deal brokered by Darryl Lopes at DomainNameSales.com.

If you visit Scada.com, you can see that it is owned by a company called B-Scada, Inc. Before visiting the website, I was not aware that SCADA is an acronym for “Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition.” According to the website found on its newly acquired domain name, B-Scada, Inc. was established in 2003, and the company is based Crystal River, Florida. Prior to the acquisition, it appears that the company had been using B-Scada.com or BScada.com for its website.

When reporting the sale, Chernoff mentioned that

10 Worst Kinds of Domain Name Prospective Buyers

If you own valuable domain names, you probably receive offers on a frequent basis. Some prospective buyers are fair and reasonable, and others are frustrating or even angering. If you’ve been in the business long enough, chances are good that you’ve come across prospects  like the ones I listed below.

Without using specific examples, I want to share what I think are the ten worst kinds of domain name prospective buyers. These people can make investing in domain names less enjoyable, and at the very least, make the business of selling domain names more challenging.

I invite you to share other types of buyers that I missed in my list. I am sure there are other kinds of bad prospects that make life difficult for all of us.

  • Prospective buyer who has the money and

Dave Evanson Reports 6 Figure Sale of VitaminC.com

 

Sedo broker Dave Evanson reported the sale of the VitaminC.com domain name at a price of $104,000 via his Twitter account. The Whois registration information is currently private, so I am not sure if the domain name has already been transferred to the buyer. I spoke with Dave on the phone a moment ago, and he was unable to provide information about the buyer or seller.

VitaminC.com had been

Reports: Diapers.com Founder Acquires Jet.com

For many years, the Jet.com domain name was owned by Canadian domain investor Garry Chernoff and his NetIncome Ventures, Inc. In January of this year, the Whois registrant information went private, and according to reports I read, the buyer was Mark Lore, founder of Diapers.com.

According to an article on Fortune / CNN Money, “Lore confirms to  Fortune  that he acquired the domain  Jet.com, which has  a placeholder that says “Coming 2015.” Jet.com Inc. was incorporated in Delaware on April 4, according to the State of Delaware’s website.”  An article by Jason Del Rey in Re/Code suggests that Lore has big plans for this project, and Lore may be “interested in raising as much as $50 million to get his new company off the ground. One source said that number could go higher.”

Knowing the quality of Chernoff’s domain name assets and some of his prices, I would bet that this domain name had a