Publicly traded Quinstreet acquires Insurance.com.
Lead generation company QuinStreet has purchased the Insurance.com web site and domain name.
A notice on Insurance.com states “Insurance.com has changed ownership. Click here to review our updated privacy policy.” The privacy policy notes that site is owned by Quinstreet.
I called a phone representative at Insurance.com who said the company was acquired “a couple days ago”. I am awaiting a response from Quinstreet with further details.
This was surely an expensive acquisition, but I can’t find information about it in any of Quinstreet’s SEC filings.
Last year QuinStreet purchased the Insure.com web site for $16 million. It then filed to go public on the NASDAQ, and now has a market capitalization of about $550 million.
Compete.com estimates that Insurance.com receives 325,000 visits per month.
Many readers of Domain Name Wire think that Insurance.com is the most valuable domain name in the world, even more valuable than Sex.com.
$22 million?
It would be a material transaction, so it’s indeed surprising that QuinStreet hasn’t disclosed it to investors.
What are your “expert opinions” on the Value of those .COM domains as Top Level Domains ?
http://Insure/
http://Insurance/
and for extra credit, as IANA Scheme Names (which are FREE?)
Insure://…
Insurance://…
Now if only the stock would stop going down
1. $12-$15 million
2. $100 million (minimum)
No guesses on the “scheme names”.
underinsured.com has turned an offer almost as large but with too many restrictions.
IANA Scheme Names
http://www.iana.org/assignments/uri-schemes.html
http://
news://
mail://
…
xxx://
Broadscape
I would value insurance.com domain brand value at $50 million. Then I would value revenue at 30 years revenue (if revenue is lead gen commission). The total of the two would be the final price.
Of course Insurance.com had a lot of employees. Just saw a report that it’s laying off 140 of them and closing down it headquarters operation.
@Jon,
So like Jakbqwik said, around $100 million?
@Jim,
WTF does that stuff mean? I understand the .tv one, but the others…never seen them before.
Over 100 Million IMO, they sell quite e bit of insurance policies. Then there’s this name…
Great domain that with the right business model or monetization model (lead generation…) is sure to continue to be profitable for the buyers!
My guess is 75-125 million
look at the recent creditcards.com and netquote.com deals
the big boys have bought a lot of top ranking companies in the last year…
incredible… QuinStreet is making a huge run at world dominance 🙂
I heard Broadscape was trying to gather $100 million to do the deal, but they had trouble with financing.
QuinStreet is making some very smart moves, from a long-term perspective. It’ll be interesting to see where they’re at in 10-20 years.
They may not be able to disclose any details until their q-3 call scheduled for August 9th.
Your all way off Try 250 to 300 million.
250k unique viewers at 10.00 click. 30-40 million a year. X by 7 years not sure if renewals are included but your looking at a 250-300 million dollar deal.
The name alone along with being the supplier for insurance leads is incredible.
All this means is if you own a state insurance domain name your value just went up 100 to 300% don’t sell your state insurance names.
Don
idomainmedia.com
Insurance.com was in trouble. That is why all 144 employees were let go and the web/domain assets sold. I heard the domain/site and underlying policy biz was being shopped for about $100m with about 50% related to the website/domain assets and the other 50% for the policies. I would strongly bet the asset purchase was around $50m.
@Ted,
There’s no way the deal went down for under $100 million…no freaking way. From what I’ve read in other forums, $100 million was the floor…I’ll bet it sold for $150-$180 million.
Nice to know about this.
We own almost 1000 insurance domains including lots of geo (stat,cities, countries) insurance domains.
Sometimes the single click can be $50….insurance traffic is awesome!
This is certainly one of the biggest domain news items in several years. Ironic the company was struggling though.
Geico, Progressive, State Farm spend unreal amounts on advertising, so much so that they effectively surpassed the magnet attraction of a premium generic like Insurance.com.
In different hands, Insurance.com could be a true powerhouse of revenue.
These domains are unregistered, and I’m thinking about registering them:
Nibiru.co
SpaceWeather.co
What do you guys think they’re worth?
@BJ. I am 100 percent positive. I know PE firms that backed out. Only the website/domain sold. The huge policy base is still not sold. Quinstreet would not spend 100m on this.
If the transaction was material, Quinstreet would have to disclose the acquisition in the form of an 8k filing with the SEC. It did not make any kind of disclosure, other than the required filing with Ohio regulators to say it planned the mass layoff of Insurance.com staffers. The lack of an 8k means the transaction was tiny in the total scheme of things for a company with a market cap of $560m. The guesses of $50m or more are way too high. This was a troubled company with investors who wanted out. Quinstreet smelled blood and picked up a bargain.
>>>Sometimes the single click can be $50….insurance traffic is awesome!<<<
RKB, I got some geo insurance names, the highest for a single click I got is $10.
Where have you parked it or is it a developed site, that generated $50 per click ?
It’s possible as some are suggesting that Insurance.com was mismanaged. No matter how great the name is, if you mortgage it to death and don’t run it properly catches up with you.
Were do you guys get these radical $10-20 per click figures? This domain was purchased for about $50 million and based on the traffic figures its probably earning between $100-$200k per month MAX. Under a quinstreet mgt with their sales/marketing resources Im guessing they could double those rev figures…maybe
I wouldn’t doubt that insurance.com is the most valuable website. Based on the purchase price there must be a long term goal of returning their investment.