Business.com for sale; could fetch up to $400M
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Written By Emily Koh | June 22, 2007 | Share This
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The Wall Street Journal reports that Business.com, a Santa Monica, California-based search engine and directory used by businesses
to find products and services, is now up for sale, and is expected to rake in anywhere from $300 million to $400 million, according to insiders.
Entrepreneurs Jake Winebaum and Sky Dayton originally purchased Business.com back in 1995 for $7.5 million, making it not just the highest price paid for a domain name at the time, but turning the two into the laughingstock of the community for having forked over so much money for a URL.
It’s come a long way since then, however: Business.com received more than $77.5 million in venture capital from Benchmark Capital, Cahners Business Information, Financial Times Group, Industryclick, Institutional Venture Partners, and McGraw-Hill, according to socalTECH.com. Its EBITDA for 2007 was about $15 million, and its online traffic grew by 50% in the first quarter of 2007 compared to last year.
Ashkan Karbasfrooshan of WatchMojo.com points out that it’s not just an URL up for sale, it’s an actual business:
After all, indeed when Business.com (the URL) was bought for $7.5M, the joke was that the site would not generate $75.M in its lifetime to pay back for the purchase. Then again, the URL was bought at the tail-end of the first boom, which was subsequently followed by a period of anemic ad revenues and lukewarm digital prospects.
But because of that, search advertising took off, and with it did the value of generic URLs… Business.com became a beneficiary both of direct navigation traffic and revenue but also built up its directory and pay-per-click business. It even raised $10M in financing. One would have thought: more madness!
The WSJ notes that media companies like Dow Jones & Co. and The New York Times are expected to be eyeing the sale with much interest. …What, no bid from Rupert Murdoch?
Topics: Domains |