Estate Group Buys Patents.com — Internet Real
Firm short-circuits auction, buys Patents.com for undisclosed amount.
A few weeks ago I wrote regarding an “auction” for Patents.com, which I expected to bring in $1M+. The sellers ended up striking a deal with Internet Real Estate Group (formerly DealJam), and details of the sale were not disclosed.
Internet Real Estate Group (IREG) owns some of the world’s greatest domain names, counting Software.com, Sweepstakes.com, Phone.com, and Shop.com. The firm has also been an active seller of domains, although in recent years it has focused on purchases. Some of its more notable sales include CreditCards.com and Computer.com (the latter sold to Tiger Direct). Just this month IREG sold Luggage.com to CSN Store, Inc.
IREG is taking a different approach to some of the newer entrants into the domain name market. Many of these firms have focused on acquiring massive portfolios of domains, wheras IREG focuses solely on premium domains. Some of the sizable portfolio holders seem to acquire good names by chance as part of larger purchases. Part of the problem is that these firms buy domains almost solely on multiples of pay-per-click revenue, and premium domains like Patents.com have much more value than 10x, 50x, or 100x pay-per-click revenues.
