[usakos]

Is the domain name Business.com worth $400M? Craziness? Not so fast

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1182...N=wsjie/6month

By DENNIS K. BERMAN
June 22, 2007; Page B3

Entrepreneurs Jake Winebaum and Sky Dayton were widely mocked for lavishing $7.5 million on a single Internet domain name -- business.com -- back in 1999. It was the single highest price paid for a domain name at the time.

Now look who is having the last laugh.

The company that grew out of business.com -- a search engine used by businesses to find products and services -- is now on the auction block, and could fetch anywhere between $300 million and $400 million, according to people familiar with the matter.

Closely held business.com is expected to attract a host of interest from the likes of media companies such as Dow Jones & Co. and New York Times Co., these people said. Requests for comment from Business.com and the New York Times were not returned yesterday evening. Dow Jones, publisher of The Wall Street Journal, declined to comment.

Business.com does the kind of things publishers are trying to do more of: Drive readers to spend money with merchants who will pay a bounty for the traffic.

Their interest shows how, well into the Internet age, media companies are still eager for properties that can deliver online revenue and growth. Business.com, Santa Monica, Calif., has 2007 earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of about $15 million, the people familiar with the matter said, with its online traffic growing by 50% in the first quarter of 2007, compared with the year earlier.

The people familiar with the matter say that the final price for Business.com is hard to predict. But at $350 million, a deal would value the company at some 24 times cash flow. Credit Suisse is running the auction.

Mr. Dayton remains a director. Mr. Winebaum is business.com's chief executive.

[Moxie]

dnscoop.com says 300M

I'd say it is worth it. Just a great domain for great positioning.

[skillipedia]

Business.com has more value than gay.com sold for 500k to a German company

[mattonline]

i wish business.com will be a resource website, like entrepreneur.com - but better, wish the new owners will have alll the news etc on there.

Looking forward for the change over

Entrepreneurs Jake Winebaum and Sky Dayton were widely mocked for lavishing $7.5 million on a single Internet domain name -- business.com -- back in 1999. It was the single highest price paid for a domain name at the time.

Now look who is having the last laugh.

Love this part, they took the rish and it paid off, great purchase

[NeeJam]

Originally Posted by skillipedia

Business.com has more value than gay.com sold for 500k to a German company

Business.com sold years ago for $7.5 million it already proved it was worth more then 500k then

[Young Spark]

If I may say so... that's one hell of a R.O.I. (7.5M purchase, $300M-$400M sell point.) Great job if I can say so myself.

[jcoxy4]

If business.com is worth that much,then imagine how much google.com (the domain name not the business) is worth? Easily a billion i think

[stand856]

Dnscoop.com

The estimated value of http://www.google.com is: $1,459,760,000
The estimated value of http://www.yahoo.com is: $1,293,600,000
The estimated value of http://www.YoungEntrepreneur.com is: $80,648
The estimated value of http://www.gentletip.com is: $6,180

[Dale King]

The question isn't whether or not we think Business.com is worth $300 to 400 million. The question is whether or not the purchaser think it's worth that much money.

It appears the answer may be is a resounding YES!!!

Dale King

[Young Spark]

Keep it up Yahoo... ya'll are getting close...

Hmmmmmmmm, YoungEntrepreneur... seems attractive (let's just keep our fingers crossed that BizGuy doesn't see and decide to sell the domain ) J/K

Turning the topic for a bit, how much does everyone think Google makes on a daily basis? I'd say $10k

[jcoxy4]

10k ? ha must be a half a mil or a mil easy.I read some figures on entrepreneurforum.co.uk 50% of all internet users use google as their search engine.And most of them have google as there homepage.Include how much adwords,adsense and all there other ventures make then thats allot.The big businesses spend up to £15,000 a day on google advertising.And the largest businesses even more.SO i think maybe 1 million plus.And there was news of google buying out apple

[Young Spark]

The intriguing point that I saw was the one time when I was watching Big Business (I think it was, the show with David Faber on CNBC... or Business Nation it might've been) and he was speaking about how Google actually stores all searches in their servers (and believe it or not... these searches are saved forever.) So it lead me to one more question right quick: Is it a violation (or does anybody believe its wrong to do such a thing?)