It’s been through several owners, legal battles and even the subject of books, but Sex.com will be sold once again in an auction next month. Bids will start at $1 million.
Ownership over the Sex.com domain was the subject of a decade-long legal battle chronicled in not one, but two books. It was sold to a company called ESCOM in 2006 for a reported $14 million. It is possible that ESCOM was never able to pay off that amount because the notice (embedded below) says the sale is due to a foreclosure “for default in the payment of debt and performance of obligations owed by Escom, LLC (“Borrower”) to DOM Partners LLC (Secured Party”).
The notice also states: “To be qualified to bid at the auction, bidders must appear at the auction with a certified bank check in the amount of $1,000,000.” The type-in traffic alone might be worth that much. But the domain itself has languished. The site is a PG-13 landing page with links to a story of the day, videos, horoscopes, a shop, and a classifieds section that is still under construction. Sex.com does not even appear in the first page of results on Google for the search term “sex”.
It’s sad really, like a scorned lover being put out on the curb. According to one of the investors, there were too many parties involved who “prevented the asset from being operated properly.” It sounds like the site was bedeviled by incompetence and infighting. “I wouldn’t bet on any auction happening with this group on that date, litigated first most likely,” says the investor.
