Auction nets $2.6 million for domain name

BALTIMORE, April 3 (UPI) -- The investment of $20 a year to maintain ownership of the Internet domain name "pizza.com" netted the U.S. owner a hefty return of $2.6 million Thursday.

Chris Clark of North Potomac, Md., registered the name in 1994, when trying to snare a contract with a pizza company for his Internet consulting firm.

The contract never happened, but Clark kept up the annual registration fee and sold the site Thursday for $2.6 million to an anonymous bidder.

Over the years it had made Clark and a partner a small profit as a pizza delivery directory, the Baltimore Sun reported.

But, in 2006 Clark heard the name "vodka.com" sold for $3 million and he realized he was onto something.

He advertised his site was for sale and got offers of six figures. So, he turned to Sedo, the online auction house that sold the "vodka.com" name.

On March 27, the bidding for "pizza.com" started out at $100. The final bid Thursday was for $2.6 million.

"In '94, you could have just registered everything and anything," Clark told the paper ruefully. "I think about that now, yeah," he said.

Copyright 2008 by United Press International.