Top10.com Sells for $1 Million...Files.com Sells for $725,000

**DTalk** · 03-30-2010, 07:30 PM

Interesting deals...

Top10.com

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.

http://domainnamewire.com/2010/03/30...for-1-million/

Files.com

sedo’s latest domain name sales report includes another spectacular sale: Files.com for $725,000. The current owner is Startive Capital Pty Ltd of Australia, but it has been listed as the whois contact for the domain name since December. The prior whois is for Domain Capital.

http://domainnamewire.com/2010/03/30...n-did-it-sell/

**Millering** · 03-30-2010, 08:20 PM

incredible sales for top10.com, lottery winner

**TheLegendaryJP** · 03-30-2010, 09:58 PM

$200k cash, 7% stake which would have to make that stake worth $800k...so they already valued their company at over $10m!

Lol, excellent sale even if they fall flat on their face but you have to wonder how good someone is when their numbers are complete poppycock.

**stewie** · 03-30-2010, 11:01 PM

nice sale

**Find A Date** · 03-30-2010, 11:11 PM

Thats great news, thanks for sharing

Robert

**DTalk** · 03-31-2010, 05:00 AM

Originally Posted by TheLegendaryJP

$200k cash, 7% stake which would have to make that stake worth $800k...so they already valued their company at over $10m!

Lol, excellent sale even if they fall flat on their face but you have to wonder how good someone is when their numbers are complete poppycock.

Well, JP, the buyer apparently has already got a proven track record. Since 2006, they've apparently built a business in the UK doing 9 million GBP per annum (ie, say, $13.5 million pa, USD) - with 1.5 million users per month - using the ccTLD (Top10.co.uk)...

http://eu.techcrunch.com/2010/03/29/...bal-expansion/

Being an online info services business, with 20 employees, it wouldn't surprise me at all if Top10.co.uk was making (conservatively) a 15 % net profit on that $13.5 million annual revenue (ie just over $2 million profit pa) - which, at a modest P:E ratio of 5:1, would, indeed, value the company at about $10 million.

If the new owners have global ambitions - eg to expand their business into the US, and other places - it makes sense for them NOT to launch that US/global business on their ccTLD Top10.co.uk domain....Better the .com of the brand.

So, for just 1.48% of ONE year's rev cash outlay ($200,000), they get the global domain of their brand - and, pay the remainder of the purchase price from 7% of any future revenue.

Even better, if the .com branding of their name helps them grow into new markets, that might otherwise have been difficult without it, then the balance of the purchase price ($800,000) will likely be covered by the new revenue streams from those new markets - leaving them 93% of any new-market revenue better off.....ie effectively, the purchase price balance (ie the $800,000) will likely cost them nothing, in net terms.

On the other hand, if the buyers do not create a single dollar in additional revenue by using the .com domain of their brand, then the total purchase price of the domain represents only (a tax deductible) 7.4% of just ONE years' revenue, anyway.....Very do-able....which, with the tax deduction, will cost them little, if anything, in net terms, either.

Looked at this way, not a bad purchase deal for a fast-rising business.....And, potentially, a lucrative deal for the seller.

.

**GeoOwners** · 03-31-2010, 07:34 AM

Originally Posted by TheLegendaryJP

$200k cash, 7% stake which would have to make that stake worth $800k...so they already valued their company at over $10m!

Lol, excellent sale even if they fall flat on their face but you have to wonder how good someone is when their numbers are complete poppycock.

He he you said poppycock

**Spex** · 03-31-2010, 10:57 AM

Very nice sale

Also, how long before someone comes in here asking how much their "e-top10.com/net/org" is worth as a result of this sale?

**barefoot** · 03-31-2010, 12:14 PM

Looks like the same company picked up TopTen.com about 2 weeks ago.

**TheLegendaryJP** · 03-31-2010, 01:03 PM

Originally Posted by GeoOwners

He he you said poppycock

I was trying to remain civil lol another term crossed my mind but...

As for the valuation, @Dtalk, nice research, now if that stake was in the existing company, excellent! If not and is in a new " start up " or sister company, well, time will tell, either way $200k period was enough to satisfied.