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Escom LLC has sold the controversial domain name Sex.com for $13 million, according to The Register. Documents filed in a California court say that the domain was sold to Clover Holdings, a stealthy offshore firm, after winning an auction that included eleven other bidders. Domain name broker Sedo was the exclusive brokerage firm representing the domain, and it will likely take a nice percent of the sale price, although the actual figures are unknown.
Sex.com has a long history, having been purchased by Escom in 2006 for a reported $12-14 million, meaning the company didn't really profit from it much, if at all. Escom purchased the domain name from Match.com's founder, Gary Kremen, who had originally registered it in 1994. Escom itself was locked in battle with creditors in bankruptcy court, who had been struggling over who should represent Sex.com in an auction.
Before the sale to Escom, Kremen had to fight in court to regain Sex.com, after it was transferred away from him due to forged domain registrar documents made by conman Stephen Cohen. In 1999, Kremen recovered the domain, but in the meantime, Cohen reportedly made $6 million a year from advertising for five years straight. He was later arrested after fleeing to Mexico soon after a court issued a $65 million judgment against him.
It looks like Sex.com helped everyone win some money, but overall it caused more harm than good.
User Comments: 13
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Ahmed90 said:
just pointless people with money ... as usual
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So how much was paid for the domain name originally? I know at the beginning people were snapping up domain names like Ford.com, XXX.com, PizzaHut.com etc., for literally a few bucks and then turning around and selling them for millions.
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mattfrompa said:
that's a lot of KY jelly...
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that's a lot of KY jelly...
OOOhhhh I love that on toast!
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princeton said:
Did techspot run out of actual news? This is sort of embarrassing to have on my homepage. Maybe it's just me.
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I was wondering the same. How is this even news?
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Just the word "sex" gets my attention.
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your kiddding right?...
Did techspot run out of actual news? This is sort of embarrassing to have on my homepage. Maybe it's just me.Your attention please!
from here on and forward...anything that does not meet with princeton's sensibilities is not to be considered news! got that?
you know what some may find offensive there Princeton? this post by you earlier:
$216 GTX 470 and $170 460 with rebates. I feel annoyed because it's actually the companies laughing at you saying "Hey guess what! We could sell these for this price and still make tons of cash EVERY ****ING DAY!"The above is not asterisked out on the news page.
[link]
you have quite a lot of nerve kvetching about offensive.
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Staff
Gives a whole new meaning to "cybersquatting"
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There was a huge scandal about sex.com some years ago. Where a con artist was able to transfer domain rights to himself and made millions on advertising revenues before the courts ordered him to return the domain and pay $65 million in fees/damages. Upon which he filed appeals and fled the country. Ultimately he still owes more than the current sale value of the website.
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pssh, if I had 65m dollars I'd flee too, lol.
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why pay 13M for this
how bout s3x.com 5ex.com sexy.com ...etc
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Well they do say sex sells...
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