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Biggest domain sale of 2013 so far: $500K for Brand.com

Image Credit: The Booklight

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In the biggest domain name sale so far this year, MakerBot VP of marketing Chuck Pettis sold Brand.com to Reputation Changer, which has now changed its name — and its brand — to Brand.com.

The sale was leaked earlier, but the exact pricing details had not been released until today.

A half-million dollars sounds like a lot for a domain name, but it’s nothing compared to the $16 million purchase of Insure.com in the heady dot-com bubble days of 2009, or the $14 million price tag on Sex.com. And it’s low compared to what Pettis wanted for the domain — TheDomains.com says that the original sales listing on Website Brokerage requested only seven-figure bids:

”Only 7 figure (USD) offers will be considered, if your maximum offer is below 7 figures – please do not contact us.”

Reputation Changer aka Brand.com believes the new name will pay for itself by leading to new business:

“With higher visibility, we’re on track to making online reputation management a central facet of brand management for all organizations.” Brand.com COO and president Mike Zammuto said in a statement. “We know individuals, companies and governments need help protecting their names against those who would use the internet as a forum for slander and debasement. As Brand.com, we’re here not just to protect reputation but the whole brand.”

Interestingly, original owner Pettis sold the name as part of a transition to working full-time for MakerBot, which was just sold to Stratasys for $403 million.

That company was founded by his son, Bre Pettis, in 2009.

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