A price comparison company in the UK has purchased the domain name Top10.com from U.S.-Based Idealab for $1 million in cash and equity, making it one of the highest reported domain sales. The deal includes $200,000 in cash and a 7% share in the new company for Idealab.
The company plans to re-brand themselves as Top10.com Media Ltd. with Idealab founder, Bill Gross, joining the advisory board.
The domain was purchased by the company behind such price comparison websites as Top 10 Broadband and Top 10 Mobile Phones, which are the UK’s most popular comparison sites in the telecom sector. They plan for the new Top10.com to be a portal to their price comparison sites.
Idealab, founded in 1996 by Bill Gross, essentially started the pay-per-click market that we know today with their startup, GoTo.com, which later became Overture, and is now Yahoo Search Marketing. They were also a key player in the explosion of affiliate marketing via CJ.com. The company has created, invested in, and spun-off some of the largest and most popular websites on the Internet. They continue to be a big player in the domain industry with many highly valuable domain names acquired through the years.