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22
Jun -
$400 Million for Business.com?
- With 0 comments
How much would you pay for Business.com? Well, the WSJ says it may fetch as much as $400 million. In case you are unaware of exactly what Business.com is, it’s a search engine/business directory. TechCrunch gives a little background on the site:
Business information directory and search enginame Business.com is for sale, reports the Wall Street Journal, and it may fetch as much as $400 million. Investment bank Credit Suisse is representing the company.
The domain name was purchased for $7.5 million back in 1999. Later, the purchase was widely ridiculed - in 1997 the domain was acquired for just $150,000.
Those were the days before CPC ads and parked pages, though, which brought the value of domains up exponentially. The risk paid off. Business.com now has EBITDA of around $15 million/year. A $400 million acquisition price is a 26 multiple on current profits, which is on the high end of current valuations.
The WSJ reports that Dow Jones & Co. and New York Times are likely bidders. Dow Jones, the parent company of the Wall Street Journal, “declined to comment” to the reporter, who also works for Dow Jones. I love those ethical walls.
It’s simply amazing how much websites fetch. Even without the content, the domain “Business.com” is worth a fortune.
