Signs of Recovery: Domain Names Once Again Fetch Top Dollar

            December 24, 2003
 

            NEW YORK —One more sign the technology sector is rebounding: An Internet domain name is
            again commanding seven figures.

            Last week, a Florida man sold men.com for $1.3 million, a healthy profit over the $15,000 he paid for it in
            1997.
 
 

                                                       The buyers, largely entertainment industry
                                                       folks who have opted to remain anonymous
                                                       behind the acquiring company, men.com LLC,
                                                       want to create a portal for men.

                                                       "In the last couple of years, the domain names
                                                       were selling for significantly less than what
                                                       they did in '99, 2000," said Monte Cahn, chief
                                                       executive of Moniker Online Services, which
                                                       brokered the sale.

                                                       He said the seven-figure price tag for
                                                       men.com "is a big indicator of what's yet to
                                                       come."

                                                       At the market's height, a handful of domain
                                                       names sold for millions of dollars, including
            $7.5 million for business.com in late 1999 and $3 million for loans.com in January 2000.

            But countless others sat unclaimed, and the dot-com bust forced many domain name speculators to give
            them up when they came up for re-registration, at roughly $30 apiece.

            Ryan Levy, vice president of marketing for men.com, said the company also has purchased more than
            1,000 other domain names over the past year at fire-sale prices to use in conjunction with the new portal.

            The seller, Rick Schwartz, believes he could have gotten much more for men.com by waiting longer.

            But Schwartz, who owns more than 4,000 other domain names, said he wanted the money now—so that
            he can buy others before prices really skyrocket.
 
 

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