Bank of America Buys Loans.com for $3 Million at GreatDomains.com in the Highest Price Ever Paid for a Domain Name at Auction

Business Wire, Feb 8, 2000

Business Editors &Multimedia Writers

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 8, 2000

GreatDomains.com today announced that the winning bidder for the domain name loans.com, sold Jan. 28, was Bank of America, one of the nation's largest and most respected financial institutions.

The domain name sold for $3 million at GreatDomains.com, setting the record for the highest price ever paid for a domain name at auction. Bids on the domain name had been received from financial institutions and venture-capital firms internationally.

&uot;We congratulate the Bank of America management team for taking this proactive measure to ensure their leadership position on the Internet,&uot; said GreatDomains.com Chief Executive Officer Jeff Tinsley.

&uot;Based on the amount of traffic this address is currently receiving, not to mention its long-term potential, this price is a very inexpensive means to drive traffic to their online lending operations.&uot;

The seller was San Jose, Calif., computer consultant Marcelo Siero, who registered the domain name in September 1994 for creation of an e-commerce application. Siero later decided to sell this valuable domain name instead.

&uot;We congratulate Marcelo on this historic sale,&uot; Tinsley said. &uot;We were confident that we would break the record on this valuable name given the power inherent in this domain name.&uot;

&uot;I have nothing but admiration and respect for GreatDomains.com. When I first approached GreatDomains.com to sell my name, I had offers of around $100,000, which I almost accepted,&uot; said Siero. &uot;They represented me professionally and enabled this transaction to occur.&uot;

Record Domain Name Sales

                   TOP DOMAIN NAMES SOLD AT AUCTION

                                   Broker              Date

Loans.com            $3,000,000    GreatDomains.com    January 2000
WallStreet.com       $1,030,000    New Commerce        April 1999
ForSaleByOwner.com   $  835,000    GreatDomains.com    January 2000
Drugs.com            $  823,456    GreatDomains.com    August 1999
Cinema.com           $  700,000    GreatDomains.com    January 2000

                      TOP DOMAIN NAMES EVER SOLD

                                   Broker              Date

Business.com         $7,500,000    None                November 1999
AltaVista.com        $3,250,000    None                July 1999
Loans.com            $3,000,000    GreatDomains.com    January 2000
Wine.com             $3,000,000    None                September 1999
Autos.com            $2,200,000    Hit Domains         December 1999
Express.com          $2,000,000    None                December 1999
WallStreet.com       $1,030,000    New Commerce        April 1999
eFlowers.com         $1,000,000    None                February 1999
ForSaleByOwner.com   $  835,000    GreatDomains.com    January 2000
Drugs.com            $  823,456    GreatDomains.com    August 1999
Cinema.com           $  700,000    GreatDomains.com    January 2000

About GreatDomains.com

Since 1996, GreatDomains.com has been the marketplace for domain names, and now it has more than 300,000 listings. Maintaining high ethical standards and integrity, GreatDomains.com created the procedures by which domain-name sales are handled, protecting the interests of all parties to the transaction. Additional services include domain-name appraisal and third-party domain-name escrow services.