The Most Expensive Domain Names

SAN FRANCISCO - Gary Kremen has parted ways with Sex.com after officially selling it on Jan. 12 to Boston-based Escom LLC.

While $14 million has been circulated as the selling price, several sources confirmed that amount to be incorrect. Andrew Miller, a partner in Domain Name Acquisition Group – the Boston based Internet real estate developer and prospector that initially optioned the domain from Kremen and ultimately helped put together the deal with Escom – termed previous reports “99 percent inaccurate.”

Neither Escom representatives nor Kremen would reveal the exact number, but the sale involved a combination of cash and equity.

A source close to the negotiations suggested that a more accurate price may be found in the lawsuit filed in September 2005 by a Philadelphia-based company attempting the purchase Sex.com from Domain Name Acquisition Group. The lawsuit listed the agreed-upon sale price as $11.4 million, which is nothing to sneeze at.

“This is one of the most significant deals in Internet history,” says Hal Bringman, a spokesman for Escom.

Before that Business.com which was resold in 1999 for $7.5 million, according to Guinness World Records, appears to have been surpassed as the most expensive domain name, and not by theRecordBreakingDomain.com which was attempting to become the most expensive domain name in a media-move by selling for $12,000,001.

The list of Most expensive domain names (in Euros):

	.com domains	Est. price
	sex.com	11.000.000
	business.com	6.000.000
	asseenontv.com	4.000.000
	altavista.com	2.640.000
	Wine.com	2.400.000
	creditcards.com	2.200.000
	auto.com	1.800.000
	vip.com	1.120.000

Based on reports from:

AZonline and SpeedNames