Top10.com Sells for $1 million

[DomainTalker]

Interesting deal...

A UK price comparison company has purchased the domain name Top10.com from Idealab for $1 million in cash and equity. The deal included $200,000 in cash, and Idealab will take a 7% stake in the privately held company. As part of the deal Idealab founder Bill Gross will join the advisory board of the buyer, now named Top10.com Media Ltd.

Top10.com Media Ltd. runs mobile phone and broadband comparison sites, which have been rebranded to a main portal at Top10.com.

Domain Name Wire » News » UK Company Buys Top10.com from Idealab For $1 Million - The Domain Industry's News Source

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[Jawed]

Overpriced in my opinion; but nothing surprises me anymore.

 

[Phare]

While that's obviously a great domain, I don't think it was worth that much IMO.

 

[website88]

way over price, i can see all the rookies going to buy top101.com top102, top 104 etc...

 

[owntype]

TopTen.com is included.

 

[Dorkside]

According to TechCrunch, the company that bought the domain is generating £9 million a year with top10.co.uk.

 

[ssamriga]

According to TechCrunch, the company that bought the domain is generating £9 million a year with top10.co.uk.

doesn't seem overpriced anymore does it
Seller got a good deal, and buyer didn't get a bad deal either...

 

[DomainTalker]

way over price...

Depends, imo....

If the company that bought it is a UK business on the way up - already generating 9 million GBP pa in the UK - and they've done this on the ccTLD (Top10.co.uk) - I can see why they might feel they HAVE to have the .com, if they have global ambitions...

....Running a business on a .co.uk domain if they wanted to expand to the US, for example, may be hard. If this is a plan they have, then $1 Million for Top10.com may be a good investment, in time.

i can see all the rookies going to buy top101.com top102, top 104 etc...

As a newbie - back in 2007 - I hand regged Top100.com & Top1000.com....heh, heh


Sold Top100.com for $75, I think....My very first ever domain sale....Lol

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[owntype]

As a newbie - back in 2007 - I hand regged Top100.com & Top1000.com....heh, heh


Sold Top100.com for $75, I think....My very first ever domain sale....Lol

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Are they .com?

Top100.com was registered in 1998 and Top1000.com registered in 1997.

I sold Top500.biz for $120 in the past. Just checked the whois record. It seems the buyer dropped it last year and someone regged it again.

 

[Venga]

Office space for 20 in central London costs a bit more than GBP 130,000 , in so far these numbers were probably nothing really unusual for the people involved.

 

[DomainTalker]

Are they .com?

Ooops, thanks, owntype....My memory's playing tricks...

It was Top10Shares.com that I regged, and then sold for $75....Quite different....

Apologies, all.

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[Jawed]

As a newbie - back in 2007 - I hand regged Top100.com & Top1000.com....heh, heh


Sold Top100.com for $75, I think....My very first ever domain sale....Lol

.

It must be 1997, as the above names were registered back then.
In 2007, names like MyTop100.biz were sold for as much as $1,215. :D

 

[theo]

Interesting deal... Now they should buy also Best10.com and Cheap10.com

 

[Jaco]

Depends, imo....

If the company that bought it is a UK business on the way up - already generating 9 million GBP pa in the UK - and they've done this on the ccTLD (Top10.co.uk) - I can see why they might feel they HAVE to have the .com, if they have global ambitions...

....Running a business on a .co.uk domain if they wanted to expand to the US, for example, may be hard. If this is a plan they have, then $1 Million for Top10.com may be a good investment, in time.

Lots to be learned from this...

Top10.com is a great, great domain name, but it's the sort of domain that's probably only seven figures to one entity. Them.

Handing over a 7% equity stake is puzzling.

If they're a £9mm (gross) annual operation already, that seems to be a very favorable earnings multiple to hand over for just the domain name.

Net media companies have some tasty margins- unless they're running the operation like a cash furnace (as some companies like this are apt to do) or their cash flow is based on an influx of unsustainable eyeballs that were paid for with a one time infusion of marketing dollars from angels/VC- I don't understand why they didn't just purchase the name outright with cash. If they feel strongly enough about owning the domain to hand over 7% of the company to acquire it, you'd think they'd just buy it, since the liquidity appears to be there. Even if it isn't, I doubt they'd have a hard time finding a credit facility that would yield far more favorable terms than what the 7% equity will cost them. It almost appears as if they have more faith in the domain name than they do the future of the company itself.

It will be interesting to see if their 7% was a straight across stock swap, or if they spun off another corp to hold "Top10.com" as a separate operation; the domain owner gets $200K and 7% of the upside while they do the heavy lifting in the new venture (one they're apparently very experienced at doing), without having to hand over the parent company.

Interesting stuff.

Also interesting to see how this name was negotiated. To get $1mm or a name like this, that means the buyer was either a TERRIBLE negotiator and went into the process with an open playbook (Hi! You have us over a barrel! Lets talk about buying your domain name..."), or the seller had cast iron balls and was able to turn down some pretty big offers to arrive at that point.

 

[Venga]

Dongsman, don´t know if you saw this: http://top10.com/company/press/top10_com_domain_name/

"Idealab’s Bill Gross takes seat on advisory board"
“With Top10.com, we aim to reinvent the way people find and compare products, and we will be working with Bill and the Idealab team to bring this vision to fruition in 2010 and beyond,”

and http://www.idealab.com/our_companies/

 

[Jaco]

The concept they're clearly going after is a montezation and affiliate goldmine.

If they can get the masses to regularly comparison shop (and provide free content/reviews) at "Top10.com", they are all rich, rich people if the concept takes and all those people click through to buy those listed products.

 

[Sparhawke]

This is a sweet sale, and a good deal for both the buyer and seller if stocks are also involved.

If the .co.uk is making $9M a year it really is next to nothing to go international for 11% annum earnings is it?

 

[hollywood]

"Idealab’s Bill Gross takes seat on advisory board"
“With Top10.com, we aim to reinvent the way people find and compare products, and we will be working with Bill and the Idealab team to bring this vision to fruition in 2010 and beyond,”

and Idealab | All Companies

Have to agree with venga, the deal premium is for the value of associating with idealab and bill gross. Of course it remains to be seen whether or not the association pays off, but I might guess that it will.

If they had bought the domain from me or dongsman it would likely have been only xxx,xxx instead of 7 figures. :hehe:

 

[exsedo]

I have a couple of mobile phone/mobile broadband comparison names they could have had for less than $1m so it was definately the association they were after. :lol:

 

[theo]

There is a big fight in UK between the comparison websites. Top10.co.uk is a very small player on the UK market. Everyday on the TV there are adverts on websites like GoCompare.com, MoneySupermarket.com ... They spend huge amount of money for advertisement.