There is a press releases out today that Fashion.com one of the most valuable .coms on the net will be auctioned off. You see the news on Fashion.com as well as the press release below. Nice to see a lot of fanfare around one name at auction, not lost in the sea of competing names and diluted attention spans.
Tip of the cap to Lox
Here is the press release:
On the final day of Paris Fashion Week, it has been announced that one of the world’s most sought-after and highly valued domains — fashion.com — will be sold at auction this autumn, leading one Internet expert to suggest it could fetch a record price.
“With the worldwide race in online fashion, I would expect fashion.com
to attract a lot of interest from giant retailers and well-known
brands, along with successful smaller players and new entrants looking
for a competitive edge,” said Karine Kugler, CEO of The Three Marketers,
a firm specializing in Search Engine Optimization and social media
marketing. “As a result,” Kugler concluded, “this could be one of the
highest prices ever paid for a domain. Fashion.com is a rare one:
iconic, highly memorable and easily searched. It should generate strong
sales numbers while saving its buyer millions in sales and marketing
costs.”
Dozens of companies and individuals have made cash offers to buy fashion.com over the past 25 years, according to Peter Johnston,
the international business advisor who represents the domain’s three
owners; in 1994, the trio was working on a fashion project and searched
for a domain that might meet their needs. They discovered fashion.com was unclaimed and bought it. After plans for their project changed, the domain sat unused.
In the decades since, the fashion industry has exploded worldwide, reaching an estimated $2 trillion in annual value, with online sales leading the way and set to increase to $700 billion by 2022.
“The owners of fashion.com
have decided that a formal bidding process is the best way to
systematically and fairly address interest from so many parties around
the globe,” said Johnston. “This approach ensures that all those wanting
to acquire the domain will be given an opportunity to do so.”
To
account for the fact that some buyers are sensitive about the amount of
their winning bids being made public, the auction for fashion.com will incorporate both private bidding, beginning October 24th, and as necessary, a public auction scheduled for November 21st. Registration for all bidders opens October 10th.
Official
service providers include Escrow.com, and the pioneering online auction
firm Auction-Experts (auction-experts.com), which will oversee the
auction and related technology.
Auction services provided by: Auction-Experts, Amsterdam
Escrow services provided by: Escrow.com, San Francisco
For further information: go to www.fashion.com or contact PeterJohnston@nailimited.com.
SOURCE NAI Limited