Please appraise Amazon.com…

[slaughterbeck]

No, I didn’t post this in the wrong forum nor am I Jeff Bezos’ wife.
I would, however, like an appraisal for Amazon.com without content.
It’s a one word dot com domain and who knows; maybe it will get some “type in” traffic from the .net and org?

Dictionary Definition:
Pronunciation: 'a-m&-"zän, -z&n
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English, from Latin, from Greek AmazOn
1: capitalized: a member of a race of female warriors of Greek mythology
2: a tall strong often masculine woman


Do you have any thoughts on how to develop it or its potential value? What would the current value be without development?

 

[merlix]

There is a simple science to what a business is worth. Depending on the type of revenue (one time, recurring, etc.), a multiplier is figured. A common multiplier for a web based business is 3x. Multiply that by the annual profit (not revenue), add in any inventory/assets and that is what a business is worth. There are some exceptions to the rule. For example, Amazon.com is profitable now, so it definitely would be worth in the millions or billions. But even when it wasn't profitable, it would have had a significant value because they had done such an excellent job of branding it with all of the advertising. Someone would be willing to buy it because of knowing that one day it would be profitable.

 

[Zeeble]

3x profit? Come on, don't be silly. We are talking a lot more than small webhosting businesses here. Amaazon has a market cap of over $14 billion and profit in 2004 was just over $1.6million Gross. Now Amazon is worth a lot more than $5bn or so..... as the market cap demonstrates.
Information for here: http://library.corporate-ir.net/library/97/976/97664/items/144853/2004_Annual_report.pdf
and at Amazong IR.

 

[merlix]

I'm the senior partner of a business brokerage firm. This is how a business brokerage firm would sell this. Believe it or not, the multiplier for a hosting company is greater than that of an ecommerce company. Residual based businesses (i.e.: hosting, membership, etc.) typically have multipliers of 4x to 6x. Every year, there is a book that comes out detailing business transactions from the previous year. Every once in a while, a high profile company like an Amazon.com will sell for more because it is assumed that the market share hasn't been fully reached.