Sedo

A few weeks ago, I learned that Income.com, a domain name owned by Internet entrepreneur and marketing guru John Reese, had been put up for sale and was being marketed by Sedo domain broker, Dave Evanson. According to a post on the Wicked Fire forum, Reese sent an email stating that Sedo “listed it at  $1MM but think they can sell it for more.”

I have been monitoring the Whois for this domain name, and I just noticed a change in the registration this evening. Sedo is now shown as the domain registrant, which generally happens only after a sale has been consummated.

I can’t confirm that the domain name has in fact been sold, but it does appear that way to me. I have reached out to Evanson for more information, and I will post an update as soon as I hear back.

If Evanson did help sell the domain name, this would be his second huge sale in Q4, as he was the broker on the $750,000 Ringtones.com sale earlier this month.

Income.com Whois 12/20:

Income.com Whois 12/21:

It was just announced that the domain name Ringtones.com has been sold for $750,000. Dave Evanson from Sedo was the domain broker for this transaction.

Prior to the sale, Ringtones.com was owned by Mobile Streams Ltd, a company trading publicly on the London Stock Exchange. Currently (now and prior to the sale), the domain name has been used as what appears to be an affiliate portal, allowing visitors to download ringtones to their mobile phones.

According to a news release on  Stock Market Wire, Mobile Streams’ CEO  Simon  Buckingham  commented that the company chose to sell Ringtones.com to use the proceeds for another line of business.  “We want to ensure that the company has the appropriate financial resources necessary to take full advantage of the rapidly growing apps market,” said Buckingham.

An old news release from Mobile Streams noted that  Ringtones.com was originally launched by the company in 1999.

The domain name is still in the Sedo escrow account, and the name of the buyer is not yet public.

I recently read that Gambling.com was going to be placed for sale by its owners, and a press release from Sedo confirms the news. The release announces that Sedo has been granted exclusive brokerage rights to the domain name.

It’s not clear what the reserve price is on the domain name, but I personally can’t imagine it selling for more than Slots.com, which was sold to Bodog for $5,500,000 earlier in 2010.

I think Gambling.com is a very good name, but I think people would be more apt to search for other keywords more – for instance, Slots, Blackjack, Poker, or Sports Bets. If an online gaming company is going to build its brand around a generic domain name, I think they would probably prefer to spend the money on one of those .com terms.

Among other large sales this year, Sedo recently found a buyer for Sex.com, which sold for $13,000,000, the highest publicly recorded all-cash deal.