Privately-owned PriveCo, which specializes in retailing “embarrassing” products online, has paid $1 million for the acquisition of the domain name vibrators.com (a little NSFW).
PriveCo began selling private things out of a spare bedroom on a website called ShopInPrivate.com back in 1998, and has steadily grown to an operation with 12 separate retail sites whose warehouse ships 1500+ packages per week.
This is how they justify the price of the domain name:
- It is an instantly recognizable name,
- Tied to products that people want to buy in complete privacy
- Customers will value PriveCo’s policies and services
- Competitor websites lack professionalism and tact
- PriveCo has strong experience in this field
DomainNameNews spoke to PriveCo President Tom Nardone on the phone and got hold of the exact details of the transaction:
Priveco has closed on the deal to buy the domain outright, but whois ownership has not changed because the current owner is financing the deal. Priveco made a six-figure down-payment on the domain name and will be paying the rest off over the next few years with an 8% interest rate.
Update – We also got in touch with Nardone, and he specified: the deal was $200k down and 800k at 8% over a fairly short term. Transfer will be done just before the end.
Either way, $1 million is a lot of money, especially in these troubled economic times. What speaks for the company, however, is that they’re bound to know exactly how valuable it is: PriveCo has been running Vibrators.com since 2002, essentially leasing the domain from someone else. The domain is currently registered to Vibesales in Jonesboro, Arizona, but Nardone says he bought the domain from an individual, not a company.