JuliannaLast month we asked the question “Is Business.com worth $400 million dollars?” Today I can tell you the answer – almost! The Wall Street Journal is reporting this morning that a deal has been made to sell the web-based business directory, and domain, for between $340 and $360 million dollars.
The Web’s original high-price domain name has been sold again — for another lofty price. Telephone-directory company R.H. Donnelley Corp. clinched a deal for Web-based marketing directory Business.com Inc. for between $340 million and $360 million, according to a person familiar with the transaction. Business.com was founded by entrepreneurs Jake Winebaum and Sky Dayton in 1999. The two were widely mocked for lavishing $7.5 million on a single Internet domain name — business.com — at the time. It was then the highest price paid for a domain name. The deal represents the increasing influence of the Internet in the yellow-pages and white-pages business of Donnelley, which publishes paper and online directories in 28 states under the AT&T, Dex and Embarq names, among others.
So while this deal is for both the domain and company this time around, business.com once again sets the record for the highest price paid for a domain name. The pundits were pretty close to guessing the valuation of this sale, and the type of buyer. It seems like a good fit for a yellow and white page directory company to buy a business directory site. The first sale of this domain was a bit of a shocker, and while Winebaum and Dayton have built up a substantial company around the domain, $360 million is still a bit of a surprise. I’m sure many of us will be keeping our eyes on the next step for business.com.