Diamond.com Sells for $7.5 Million

Odimo Incorporated said Wednesday that it had sold the domain name diamond.com for $7.5 million to online retailer Ice.com, making the deal one of the biggest domain sales of all time. Odimo's diamond and jewelry inventory and corporate packaging were sold to Ice.com for an additional $2.0 million, as the parties appear to have separated the sale of the domain and parts of the underlying business, a distinction that has been an issue in other recent big-ticket sales.

The Diamond.com sale price equals the $7.5 million paid for Business.com in 1999, which was recognized for many years as the highest domain sale of all time. In January Sex.com was sold for a higher price, with various reports placing the sale price at $14 million. However, the sale included an adult web site and underlying business, in addition to the domain. Some domainers - including Marc Ostrofsky, the seller in the record Business.com sale - say that because the Sex.com price included a business as well as a domain, it's an apples-to-oranges comparison.

Ths list of highest all-time sales at MultiReg lists Sex.com as the highest sale of all time. The list also notes that Diamond.com sold for $6 million in 2000, which would place Odimo's gain at $1.5 million in six years (or about $250K per year).

The Diamond.com sale goes to the top of the list of domain resales for 2006, surpassing the deal for Norwegian domain Nav.no, which sold for $717K according to Domain Name Journal's year-to-date list of the highest sale prices.

Odimo sells watches and luxury goods on the web, but will be prohibited from further online sales of jewelry and diamonds as part of the deal, the company said.

  Posted by RichM May 11, 2006 | Permalink | Newsletter

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Diamond.com Sells for $7.5 Million - May 11, 2006





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