Year2000.com domain draws $10 million bid

The bidding for the Internet domain name Year2000.com closed last night on eBay for $10 million, according to a posting on the Net auctioneer's Web site.

If the bid is legitimate and the sale is completed, this could be a record amount paid for a domain name. eBay will know in about three days whether the bid is legitimate, said eBay spokesman Kevin Pursglove.

The amounts paid for domain names have been climbing amid the boom in e-commerce. As reported, eCompanies paid $7.5 million for Business.com in November to launch a business-to-business Internet service.

According to eBay's Web site, 13 bids were made for Year2000.com, starting at $1,005,000. The auction began on Dec. 30 and ended last night at 10 p.m. PST. The bidding for the domain name (item number 225003545) was a private auction, and the bidders' identities remain confidential.

The Year2000.com Web site read today: "The Year2000.com domain name auction on eBay is now completed with a sale price of $10 million. This sets a record price for the sale of a domain name, breaking the previous record for the sale of the business.com domain name for $7.5 million by Houstonian Marc Ostrofsky" to eCompanies.

"Details on the winning bidder will be disclosed upon completion of the transaction," the notice stated.

Year2000.com was created for disseminating information about the Y2K bug. It is a joint venture of Petrus & Associates, which is owned by Canadian Y2K specialist Peter de Jager, and the Year 2000 Information Center, a subsidiary of Tenagra Corp. Based in Houston, Texas, Tenagra is an Internet marketing firm.

The Year2000.com site is registered to Tenagra, according to domain name registrar Network Solutions. Tenagra chief executive Cliff Kurtzman is listed as the administrative contact.

The sale includes only the domain name and address, according to the eBay auction listing. The content now posted on the site will be transferred to a new Web address if the sale is completed.