Dictionary.com Sold: 100mil

[Mike]

NEW YORK, July 16 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Answers Corporation (NASDAQ: ANSW), creator of Answers.com(TM), announced today that it has entered into a purchase agreement to acquire Lexico Publishing Group, LLC, owner of the popular Web properties Dictionary.com, Thesaurus.com and Reference.com, for $100 million in cash.

Here's the Full Story

That would be one enormous sale! Can i get 1%,...please?! :hehe:

Wonder if that's actually true, i haven't heard anywhere else about it. Can anyone confirm this story?

 

[Sameh]

Dictionary.com sells for $100 Million , Thesaurus.com and Reference.com as a gift

This is a new record in Domain sales.

Answers.com buy it i think.

 

[Smith]

Dictionary.com sells for $100 Million , Thesaurus.com and Reference.com as a gift

This is a new record in Domain sales.

Answers.com buy it i think.

This is the sale of the company that owns these fully developed websites, not the domains on their own.

 

[Sameh]

This is the sale of the company that owns these fully developed websites, not the domains on their own.

I know .. but still count as domain sale.

 

[italiandragon]

This is the sale of the company that owns these fully developed websites, not the domains on their own.

the company without the domain would worth peanuts

 

[christian_1983]

the company without the domain would worth peanuts

I beg to differ. The name definatley adds to the cache of the sale. However, to suggest that the names were the bulk of the purchase would overlook that huge user base dictionary.com has.

Its a great site and i have used it for a very long time. The domain was the icing on the cake for this sale.

 

[Sameh]

I beg to differ. The name definatley adds to the cache of the sale. However, to suggest that the names were the bulk of the purchase would overlook that huge user base dictionary.com has.

Its a great site and i have used it for a very long time. The domain was the icing on the cake for this sale.

Also, dont forget that Google picked answers.com over dictionary.com for their "definition lookup" .

Do you think that answers.com couldn't get a better and bigger database (if they really need dictionary.com database) for $100,000 ?

I think this sale was more about the domains than databases.

 

[DnPresident]

the company without the domain would worth peanuts

That's right. The bank that owns loans.com has implied that to purchase that domain name you would have to purchase the company and it is a large, well known bank.

I've seen several comments today about Answers. I have TradeAnswers so will I get lucky enough that all this may help it's value any?

 

[SimpleDomaining]

wow what a price. i wonder if dictionary.com sold at 100 mil, how much would google.com sold for, if ever...

 

[Mike]

wow what a price. i wonder if dictionary.com sold at 100 mil, how much would google.com sold for, if ever...

Google.com with the company - high xxx billions to low $xxxx billions.
Google.com as Domain alone - not for sale,..ever...they'd be insane to sell it, it's the backbone of their entire success.

Dictionary.com on the other hand, is a domain name that didn't carry the entire philosophy of an entire corporation. Even if it did, it came as part of a take over, making it a vital part of someone else's strategy - for 100mil...almost a steal!

 

[italiandragon]

Google.com with the company - high xxx billions to low $xxxx billions.
Google.com as Domain alone - not for sale,..ever...they'd be insane to sell it, it's the backbone of their entire success.

Dictionary.com on the other hand, is a domain name that didn't carry the entire philosophy of an entire corporation. Even if it did, it came as part of a take over, making it a vital part of someone else's strategy - for 100mil...almost a steal!

steal ?

$100,000,000

steal .........

 

[Beachie]

Google.com with the company - high xxx billions to low $xxxx billions.
Google.com as Domain alone - not for sale,..ever...they'd be insane to sell it, it's the backbone of their entire success.

Dictionary.com on the other hand, is a domain name that didn't carry the entire philosophy of an entire corporation. Even if it did, it came as part of a take over, making it a vital part of someone else's strategy - for 100mil...almost a steal!

There's no guess work required - Google is a public company so you can check it's market capitalization any given day. All you have to do is buy all the shares and you'll own it. It's currently worth $172 billion.

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/ks?s=Goog

Dictionary.com sells for $100 Million , Thesaurus.com and Reference.com as a gift

This is a new record in Domain sales.

Answers.com buy it i think.

As for the Dictionary.com deal - no company spends $100 million for a domain without understanding the revenue and ROI. That money was for the business, of which the website is a key part, but it was not for the domains alone - you won't be seeing the domains listed in the weekly sales charts.

 

[tipsfromthetop]

Damn i missed that sale i would of given them 100,000,000 and 50 cents for the company and names... iam always late :lol:

 

[nicholas]

now there's a literal dictionary "dot-com."

my take would be that both the domain name, and the company behind it, make it worth that much. As to why on earth it can be worth that much is a whole different story altogether.

I haven't checked on Lexico Publishing Group, LLC in detail myself but would guess they're well worth the money. People don't have access to a hundred million big ones and not be able to rationalize spending it well.

 

[richrf]

Interesting acquisition at a pretty sizable multiple for a business that I would think has more limited acceleration in growth than some other potential companies. Still, the numbers of visitors is huge and they could be potentially better monetized in more seasoned hands.

Rich

 

[zhdg2050]

I think if you really want it, it is very worthwhile to spend so much money to buy.

 

[mattonline]

bargin, IMO

out of curiosity how many uniques does google get per day? do we know what.

 

[JacoH]

Great sale!!! Great Business!!! MattOnline - Rather ask how many uniques Dictionary.Com gets per day.

 

[Element]

Congratulations to whoever bought it. I wish I had half that amount of money.