Moniker auctioned off Best.com last week for $331,561, and Best.net was also sold for an additional cost $36,840, approximately 11% of the cost of the dot com, totalling $368,401 for the pair.
Sedo.com, the leading online aftermarket domain name brokerage firm, reports that year over year, sales volume has increased 5.5% and average sales prices showed a sharp uptick of 37%. Recession? Not in domain name sales. Likely however, an impact of greater interest in internet startups, as other parts of the economy have slowed.
Its been quite a while since 40z reported on a dot com IPO, but there was one today. Ancestry.com raised $100 million with a successful offering and began trading on the NASDAQ with the ticker ACOM. A total of 7.41 million shares were sold for 13.50 per share in the intial public offering, valuing the company at $572 million. In trading Thursday, ACOM reached an intraday high of $16.32.
In what appears to be the largest domain transaction to date, Insure.com has been sold for $16 million. Insure.com Inc., a publically traded company (Nasdaq ticker: NSUR), will change its corporate name to Life Quotes, Inc. and will continue its business. Revenue from the asset sale transaction, will be recorded as a one time extraordinary gain.
The buyer? QuinStreet, who recently acquired internet.com for $18 million. According to their description at aboutus.org as "a pioneer in pay-for-performance marketing and lead generation" it would appear their intention is sales lead generation.
Insure.com was acquired in December 2001 for $1.6 million.
