Sex is still one of the hottest topic to discuss at offline as well as online. No matter how far people run away from the fact of exposure towards sex, it’s still one of the most sellable products in the market. This fact has been backed by the recent sales document which has been filed by Escom LLC in California claiming that company has agreed to hand over one of the most popular domain name www.sex.com to Clover Holdings Ltd for a lucrative price of $13 Million.
Back in 2006, Escom LLC, which has been bankrupt, had bought this domain from its previous owner at very high price which stands somewhere between $12 million to $14 million.
Originally www.sex.com was first sold in 1994 by Network Solution, one of the premier domain registrars, to Gary Kremen. Unfortunately, after and year Network Solution transferred this domain to another person named Stephen M Cohen who managed to misrepresent the ownership of www.sex.com by sending false emails, phone calls and faxes. After gaining control over domain, Cohen launched a heavy advertisement site on sex.com which used to attract 25 million hits each day. Cohen was reportedly making $50,000 – $500,000 each month from the website till court awarded the judgment in the favor of Kremen. Cohen was asked to pay $25 million in court and another $40 million later.
However, Cohen illegally transferred all his assets to Mexico and declared himself bankrupt. Following to which Cohen fled to Mexico in order to avoid arrest warrant. In October 2005, Cohen was arrested in Mexico and now is out of court on bail and representing his case.
www.sex.com is not alone in Internet era which has been sold at such examinant price. There are many other similar domains which carries such interesting stories with them or a price tag of million. Here is a list and brief about World’s most expensive domains:
WWW.INTERNET.COM – $ 18 Million
Controlled by QuinStreet Inc, in all cash deal, ingernet.com primarily targets to deliver information which matters for developers, software companies and IT professionals.
WWW.PORN.COM – $9.5 Million
Reports vary: Porn.com was purchased by MXN Limited for either $9 million or $9.5 million. The exact price and the terms of the deal were not disclosed by either party involved. “Porn.com will prove to be a valuable asset for MXN Ltd. because of its significant number of daily visitors,” said Moniker.com’s CEO, who oversaw the deal, at the time.
WWW.FUND.COM – $9.99 Million
In an all-cash transaction, Fund.com was sold for just under $10 million in March 2008 to a New York firm which underwent a name change from Meade Technologies Inc. to Fund.com Inc. at the time of the sale.
WWW.BUSINESS.COM – $7.75 Million
Business.com was one of the highest price tag domain before sex.com got sold in 2006. Originally founded by Jayton – Founder of Earthlilnk and Jake Winebaum – previous group chairman of Walt Disney, business.com sold at the cost of $7.5 million later.
WWW.DIAMOND.COM – $7.75 Million
In a private sale, online diamond and jewelry retailer Ice.com bought Diamond.com for $7.5 million from Odimo Inc. In a related deal, Ice.com purchased all of Odimo’s jewelry inventory for an additional $2 million
WWW.BEER.COM – $7 Million
Developed by Internet entrepreneur William E. Fisher in 1993, Beer.com sold six years later for only $80,000. Fisher was left with a 20 percent stake in the name, which paid off when it was sold several years later for $7 million.
WWW.TOYS.COM – $5.1 Million
Toys ‘R’ Us purchased Toys.com in early 2009 for $5.1 million at auction. At the time, industry watchers said that the price was a steal and, in better economic times, would probably have gone for somewhere between $7 million and $8 million. Even on a slow day, hundreds of thousands of people use the keyword “toys” in search engines.
WWW.ISRAEL.COM – $5.88 Million
Previously owned by Joel Noel Friedman, who said he registered the domain name in 1994 for fear it would be misused by someone else, Israel.com sold in early 2008 for $5.88 million to an anonymous buyer.
WWW.KOREA.COM – $5.0 Million
Korea.com was purchased by a leading telecommunications business in South Korea for $5 million in early 2000. According to PaleyMedia, it was the first publicly announced sale of a Geo Name.
WWW.WINE.COM – $2.99 Million
VirtualVineyard.com bought the domain name Wine.com for nearly $3 million. VirtualVineyard.com had to purchase all of the content on the site to complete the deal, but quickly swapped it out with its own materials.
