Exactly how much did Gary Kremen make (or loose) from Sex.com?

stephane.vangelder@indom.com (Stephane Van Gelder) — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 12:45:47 +0200

Spotted this great article the other day about Gary Kremen, the guy who first registered Sex.com before it was stolen. 46-year-old Kremen (also the founder of Match.com) is a serial entrepreneur with business interests as wide as they are numerous.

But the numbers that caught my eye are the dollar amounts Kremen eventually made from Sex.com. I already knew that after recovering the stolen domain, he sold it for $14 million. I did not know that Kremen also got a $15 million settlement from Verisign, the company who bought Network Solutions, the registrar that was involved in the actual mechanics of the Sex.com theft. The article also explains that Kremen sold a house for $4 million last year. Ownership of the house, which belonged to the Sex.com thief, was transferred to Kremen as part of the legal proceedings surrounding the case.

Without a doubt, $33 million is a very tidy sum. But consider this: Kremen probably ended up loosing out. If he hadn't lost so many years fighting to recover his stolen domain name, Kremen might have been able to built it up into an even more lucrative business…

Snapnames auction scandal turns into $33 million lawsuit

stephane.vangelder@indom.com (Stephane Van Gelder) — Wed, 05 May 2010 10:24:51 +0200

I suppose it was inevitable that the recent scandal over the rigged domain name auctions at Snapnames would spill over into a major lawsuit.

According to an article published yesterday on OregonLive.com (Snapnames is based in Portland, Oregon), the company's new owners Oversee are suing Snapnames ex executive Nelson Brady for $33 million.

Brady is alleged to have spent years artificially inflating auction prices by bidding under an alias. This fraud is said to have impacted a whopping 36,000 auctions. When the scam became public, Snapnames (bought by Oversee in 2007) was forced to provide refunds to thousands of impacted customers.

Stephane Van Gelder - Scams

Exactly how much did Gary Kremen make (or loose) from Sex.com?

Snapnames auction scandal turns into $33 million lawsuit