Big bucks URL is the business(.com)

Address sold for $7.5m

A Londoner yesterday missed out on the cyber domain name sale of the century. This unnamed person sold the rights to the Web address business.com for $150,000 two years ago to buyer Marc Ostrofsky. Yesterday Ostrofsky sold the URL for a cool $7.5 million (£4.6 million), making it the universe's most expensive virtual address. The sale, to Canadian start-up eCompanies, beat the $3.3 million Compaq previously forked out for its altavista.com search engine address. However, business.com may soon lose its crown, as it emerged that URL auction house GreatDomains.com was claiming to have received a $10 million bid for america.com, The Times reported today. Ostrofsky is no stranger to the URL Midas touch and has even employed his domain name selling skills to butter up his wife. He previously sold the rights to eflowers.com, and ensured the deal involved his wife getting free flowers every month for the rest of her life. There was no such agreement believed to be in place for yesterday's sale. eCompanies, started by former Disney Internet executive Jake Winebaum, said it would use the business.com name for a new Web service. ®