CYBERSPACE—A new chapter in the years-long saga of sex.com is about to begin. The storied website has reportedly been sold for $13 million to Clover Holdings Ltd., a company the Register labels “a bit of a mystery.”
Clover, apparently based on the Caribbean island of Saint Vincent, beat out 11 other bidders, according to bankruptcy court documents. The paper says the sale by bankrupt Escom LLC includes all trademarks related to the domain.
“The deal is subject to bankruptcy court approval,” the Register reports. “Escom sought a hearing on an accelerated timetable, which was granted yesterday. The hearing will be held next Wednesday, 27 October.”
If the sale price is accurate, it is in the same ballpark that Escom bought the domain for in 2006. Though the actual price was never publicly revealed, it was generally thought to be in the range of from $12 to $14 million.
Domain broker Sedo handled the auction and sale of sex.com and will get a percentage of the sale price.
According to the Register article, Clover Holdings’ “email address listed in court documents is @hushmail.com, the privacy-conscious webmail service,” a fact that will likely fuel a raft of rumors regarding who now owns “one of the most expensive domains of all time.”
What, for instance, if Stephen Cohen—the man who squired the domain away from Gary Kremen in the mid-’90s by forging a letter to Network Solutions, only to be caught later and convicted of the crime—was behind the purchase? He was released from prison in 2006; does anyone know where the man who made sex.com infamous currently is?
Just a crazy thought.
