Sale to data recovery firm is biggest of the year.
[Updated 9:49AM CST] ESS Data Recovery has purchased the domain name DataRecovery.com for $1.659 million, confirms company President Ben Carmitchel.
The sale marks the biggest reported sale of the year and shows the promise of a targeted, generic domain name.
The seller is competitor Associated Computers, Inc. of Minnesota. Carmitchel confirmed that the transfer took place on February 1, 2008.
In a phone interview this morning, Carmitchel said he’s been working on buying the domain for a long time.
“I’ve been working on it for 5 or 6 years,” said Carmitchel. “I’ve known [the previous owner] for a long time. He wanted to sell it but he wouldn’t let it go for chump change.”
Although the domain wasn’t cheap, it is already proving its value. “To us it’s definitely worth that amount and it has already proven its worth,” said Carmitchel. “We’ve already had a lot of direct traffic.”
The company used to spend $10,000-$12,000 a month on pay-per-click, but found it difficult to get a good return. The Google Adwords Traffic Estimator Tool has an estimated $13.83 – $20.74 per click to be in positions 1-3 for the term “data recovery”, with a total cost of $3,820 – $7,210 per day.
But it’s not just customer lead generation that makes up the domain’s value. It’s the name recognition and simplicity.
“Our customers will be able to easily recognize us,” explained Carmitchel. “We can tell them ‘just go to datarecovery.com’ rather than e-s-s-data-recovery. It makes the whole process a lot smoother for the customer.”
The company took out a loan to pay for the all cash transaction that did not involve any transfer of customers or business from the prior owner. When comparing the loan payments to the increased business, Carmitchel said the return on investment is easy to prove.
ESS Data Recovery provides data recovery services. The company has 23 employees.
Sameh says
Great Sale!
Congrats to the seller.
Robert Franks says
In the coming years, I foresee owners of generic names doing great by either developing their domains into something of value or by selling them to the companies who will pay a premium for them (like ESS for DataRecovery.com and Barnes & Noble for books.com). Big money will be made.
On the other hand, owners who buy/keep domains that do nothing but serve ads on parking pages up will be the loosers. Why? Two reasons: 1. the public will tire of those sites and stop clicking on the ads, and 2. advertisers will not want to pay for those clicks and eventually google and yahoo will discontinue serving up ads to bland parking pages.
Why do you think Rick Latona is selling off his stuff? Because he is smart enough to know his PPC income for useless sites is going to disappear and he can’t possibly develop all his sites. You will see mire owners doing the same thing.
If you are a domain owner of parked pages or if you are a parking company, you better start looking for a new way go make money.
RF
Ben Carmitchel says
Thank you for the great comments. To clarify, this was an all-cash transaction (the exact amount was 1.659M). The transfer occured on Feb. 1st and did not include anything but the domain name. What is unique is that we are a very small company, showing that the domain name buyers are not limited to just big fortune 500’s.
ryu says
I think it is a bit over-priced because wordtracker only shows about 700 searches per day (estimated).
Andrew says
ryu, see the article updates with the Google Adwords numbers. WordTracker only tracks a very limited subset of searches.
Steve M. says
Sorry, Robert, but you; like the others who’ve been making similar statements on the domain blogs over these past few months; are way, way off the mark.
Many have been predicting that the public would tire of PPC sites and stop clicking on the ads for some years now (even going back to the late 90’s when most everyone–except the ecstatic advertisers who were stuffing their pockets with cash–thought the primarily-ads-only GoTo.com would die a quick death)…and yet it has not happened.
Fact is, well-targeted ads; and the huge majority are (and only getting better targeted as time goes on); IS valuable content.
And people love such relevant, valuable content.
Always have. Always will.
As for why Rick’s selling some of his portfolio, unless he’s told you himself, you’ve no right to make any assumptive statements about his reason/s for doing so.
Andrew says
@ Robert & Steve – the great thing about your disagreement is that you can both capitalize on it. Robert can sell domains at what he views as a premium, and Steve can buy them at what he views as a bargain.
Antoinette says
Six years is a long time to sit on a domain and refuse offer after offer until the bid reaches $1.6 million dollars. I don’t know if I could have held out that long!
Stephen Douglas says
HOORAY FOR ESSDATARECOVERY!
Or… more simple put, http://www.datarecovery.com.
This is what it’s all about for domainers. Now, if the business sector could grab a faceful of this news, maybe it would start a tidal wave of aftermarket domain sales.
snes says
I must say congrats to the seller. very overpriced in my opinion. unet.com is not worth 10 times as less ans that only went for 100k
Andrew says
@snes – unet not worth 10x as less? I beg to differ. Look up the Google values on that one!
Scott Neuman says
Interesting value for the name. I guess after 5 years, he got tired of waiting for it. As someone that was a Microsoft Gold Partner, data recovery was a huge amount of our business model and was one of the most profitable parts of our business and one that didn’t take a lot of our time in terms of man hours but could be billed out at high rates. There are many companies making millions of dollars in this type of business and yes, that name will drive millions of dollars if done correctly. Scott Neuman – Recordweb Communications LLC
Patrick McDermott says
“this was an all-cash transaction (the exact amount was 1.659M). …and did not include anything but the domain name. What is unique is that we are a very small company, showing that the domain name buyers are not limited to just big fortune 500’s.”
Mr.Carmichael.
Kudos to your company for buying this domain your company coveted and not trying to reverse domain hijack it.
Not only are you showing that smart, strategic domain buying is not limited to “big fortune 500’s”, you are showing the proper method to get the domain.
Want it? Pay for it!
Wishing you continued success,
Patrick
Patrick McDermott says
“Six years is a long time to sit on a domain and refuse offer after offer until the bid reaches $1.6 million dollars. I don’t know if I could have held out that long!”
Antoinette,
You’re right.
That’s why it’s not good to be a motivated seller.
$1,659,000 / 6 years = $276,500 per year.
Real nice yearly income playing the waiting game.
Patrick
Patrick McDermott says
“I must say congrats to the seller. very overpriced in my opinion.”
snes,
The value is solely determined by the Buyer.
According to comments I saw made by the Buyer, the domain is already showing that it will pay for itself.
Unet.com could also have sold for a similar amount if an unmotivated seller wanted as much $ and and the buyer really wanted the domain.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and so are domain valuations.
Patrick
M. Menius says
“The value is solely determined by the Buyer … Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and so are domain valuations.” – Patrick
This quote should be etched in a mountain with a spotlight on it.
WWW.CollisionDomains.com says
Nice Purchase, A good investment, both in traffic point of view as well as on fixed asset build up. The domain will offer high quality direct navigational type-in traffic at absolutely no cost IE totally free. Till its life. The asset will have a steep growth in its value in fore coming years. Best investment
Best Regards
rumby says
Its quite a boost for the industry when domains are selling for this amount.
I dont think i could have held out for so long though!
Congrats to the seller.
Data Recovery says
Congrats to the seller. I would love to have that domain. ESS Data Recovery will boost their sales with this domain.