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A brief history of the internet...

  • 1967 - the first experimental 'internet' was created by Englishman, Donald Davies.
  • 1970 - the internet begins life as a communications system for US universities and military.
  • 1976 - the Queen sends her first email.
  • 1990 - first commercial internet connections.
  • 1992 - 0 web sites
  • 1994 - order a pizza online with Pizza Hut.
  • 1995 - www.business.com registered for $50.
  • 1997 - www.business.com sold for $150,000
  • 1999 - www.business.com sold for $7,500,000

Business.com Sells for $350 Million

Nick Gonzalez

Business.com has closed another chapter in its long journey from a $7.5 million million domain name bought on a hope and a prayer, sellig  to RH Donnelley for $350 million (WSJ reporting up to $360 million). RH Donnelley beat out Dow Jones and the New York Times during the bidding. The site had been on the block since late June and drew a lot of attention for outlandish valuations that turned out to be closer to the truth.

The buyer, RH Donnelley, is a directory and online local commercial search company. They are responsible for several white and yellow pages directories across the country. Business.com has turned into a business search directory, so the synergy between the two directory sites seems straightforward. The site also received a huge bump in traffic starting back in February according to ComScore.

The property reportedly had an EBITDA of around $15 million/year. While previous speculation framed the sale multiple of 25 times EBITDA ($400 million), it finally sold for around 23 times. The sale is about 47 times the $7.5 million 1999 purchase price. However, since the sale was in stock, the cash value reportedly shrunk to $2 million upon its later redemption.