Business.com Appreciates (Because of) Your Support
One of the big stories last week was the sale of Business.com to RH Donnelly. Because the business.com domain has been one of the rock stars of domain buying & selling, I found a few other numbers you might find interesting. Following are a few of the years that business.com changed hands, as well as the price:
- 1997: $150,000
- 1999: $7,500,000
- 2007: $345,000,000
I remember the sale in 1999, and how many believed its record-setting price epitomized what Alan Greenspan called "irrational exuberance." But what I didn't remember is that the 1997 sale also set a record, at least according the article I cite above.
In terms of raw numbers, $345 million is quite a haul. But note that statistically, the domain had significantly better annual appreciation between '97 and '99 (2450%) than it did between '99 and '07 (563%).
Today, of course, business.com is more than just a domain name. I'll be very interested to see what Donnelly does with it and whether -- or how quickly -- it can recoup its investment.