http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/...re/0373359.htm

Clek Media Inc. ("Clek") today announced that it has brokered the world-record sale of the domain FUND.COM for US$9,999,950 in an all-cash transaction.

I'm not real sure about this one. Lots of odd things about it. Google search for "Clek Media" show no entries for this company prior to today's press release which CNN apparently picked up from a PR feed. WhoIs shows no change in past two months. Fund.com site looks fully developed and the site's news section makes no mention of a sale. There is also a reference in the release to DN Journal all time Top 20 sales that isn't even remotely accurate. Could possibly turn out to be real but way too many red flags for me at the moment.

http://www.ad-hoc-news.de/drucken.html?art_id=15866283

Very poorly written (Fishy)

IF true ...
where would that put funds.com?

Originally posted by Duke of Earl
I'm not real sure about this one. Lots of odd things about it. Google search for "Clek Media" show no entries for this company prior to today's press release which CNN apparently picked up from a PR feed. WhoIs shows no change in past two months. Fund.com site looks fully developed and the site's news section makes no mention of a sale. There is also a reference in the release to DN Journal all time Top 20 sales that isn't even remotely accurate. Could possibly turn out to be real but way too many red flags for me at the moment.

Good points Duke.

Originally posted by Domo Sapiens
IF true ...
where would that put funds.com?

Nah, the 's' kills it because it moves from being an LLLL.com to an LLLLL.com

Originally posted by fizz
Nah, the 's' kills it because it moves from being an LLLL.com to an LLLLL.com

Watch it...!
(The noobs read everything you write)
4 letter .com 10 Million

A filing that might be of interest:

http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/da...08_eastern.htm

Structured Products. We have established Fund.com Capital Inc. to make active (non-passive) investments on our behalf, including in other financial institutions and fund management companies, and in strategic products offered or managed by either in certain instances. On November 9, 2007, Fund.com Capital entered into a $20,000,000 certificate of deposit with an Antigua bank, the Global Bank of Commerce, which is an affiliate of one of our significant stockholders (GBC Wealth Management Limited). Initially the deposit is credited with earned interest at 5% per annum for a term of three years. We have begun negotiations with the bank to change the term of the deposit to one year and to modify the interest rate from a fixed rate to a variable rate of return. We expect that the bank will determine the variable interest rate based on an index published by EQUITIES Magazine (which is owned by a significant stockholder), and that, on that basis, Fund.com Capital would receive a monthly credit (or have a monthly debit) to its term deposit in an amount equal to the increase or decrease in the published index. The term deposit would not be debited for decreases in the index for cumulative amounts that would result in the term deposit account being an amount less than the initial deposit amount. Subject to receipt of any necessary approvals (including the approval of Global Bank of Commerce, which approval could be withheld in its sole discretion), we may seek to use all or a portion of this $20,000,000 to fund one or more control investments.

Fortunately I scooped up most of Garry's good _____fund.com domains at auction last year.

Also, the fund.com website does mention the $10 million amount:

http://www.fund.com/investors_faq.html#7

How did we arrive at the $10 million purchase price for an Internet domain name?

The Internet has proven itself. The Internet connects millions of buyers and sellers everyday doing billions of dollars of business and in doing so billions of online advertising dollars and lead dollars are exchanged. The search engine Google is a prime example with $16 billion in advertising revenue. The Internet is also ideally suited to our business. Our easy to find and easy to remember address creates top-of-mind awareness for potentially tens of millions of customers. $10 million is relatively inexpensive when compared to the much greater cost of creating awareness for an upstart brand name or unknown website domain.

A lot of WHOIS changes in 2007. If the sale did occur, I'm a bit surprised the new owner would keep the name at Directnic (i.e. most owners would have a favourite registrar, and would tend to move the domain name away to that registrar).

How much would fund.com sell for at well-attended Traffic - 500K, more, less?

To me fund.com just sounds like a very nice potential brand related to financial services. There are probably 30-50 words that are as good/better as fund - invest.com is a better domain IMO. I also don't think an actual mutual fund would use fund.com as a URL - it just looks a bit weird for that.

The following page:

http://www.fund.com/fund.html

mentions Darren Rennick (the admin contact in the WHOIS for fund.com). That appears to be the same Darren Rennick of Prolexic.com (of Florida)

http://www.prolexic.com/company/contactus/
http://www.businesswire.com/portal/s...61&newsLang=en

which would account for the 305 area code (Florida) for the WHOIS admin.

That would be a way to verify the transaction, call Prolexic, a very legitimate company, and speak with Darren.

I call b.s. on this one.

If it's a hoax, it was very elaborate.

I'd feel more confident that it was real if they had put it in a SEC filing so that it would appear in EDGAR, as a false filing would likely mean jail time or fines.

Following George's tip I did reach Darren Rennick who in turn put me in touch with a Fund.com PR person in New York City who said the deal is legit (though she doesn't know anything about Clek Media and said she was unable to reach anyone at the number on the release Clek put out that had the errors that I referred to). The Fund.com rep said the deal closed in late January and that new content would be placed on the domain.