Top 30 Website Sales Of All Time
A lot has changed since we first published Top 30 Website Sales Of All Time back in March 2009.
In this, our 2017 update we feature some brand new websites such as JET.com and Lynda.com.
All 30 website sales have been at valuations of over 1 Billion USD and the largest grossing exit was for 26.2 Billion!
Truly starting a website is still one of the best routes to riches!
If you are planning to sell your website one day then there can be no better advice than to start with the end in mind or as Ryan Allis succinctly puts it:
“You have to work with the end in mind and every day make sure your working towards it”
That last bit is particularly important:
Ask yourself daily – are you working towards your goals?
The entrepreneurs who founded the businesses below are outstanding examples of starting with the end in mind and working towards your goals.
I am inspired, I hope you are too!
Special Notes:
a) We are focused on successful Website Sales by founding entrepreneurs. We have not included businesses that went public (eg Facebook and Twitter) – However an number of the successful Website Sales have been as a result of the business being bought by Public Companies.
b) Not all Website Sales worked out well for the purchaser. An example of that was Microsoft paying over 6 Billion in cash for online display advertising company aQuantive in 2007 (No 2 in our list)
Top 30 Website Sales Of All Time
| Rank | Website | Acquired By | Price | Acquisition Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Microsoft | $26.2 B | Dec 8, 2016 | |
| 2 | Aquantive | Microsoft | $6.33 B | Aug 10, 2007 |
| 3 | Yahoo | Verizon | $4.5 B | Jun 13, 2017 |
| 4 | Geocities | Yahoo | $3.6 B | May 28, 1999 |
| 5 | Chewy | PetSmart | $3.35 B | Apr 18, 2017 |
| 6 | Allegro | Permira | $3.3 B | 14 Oct, 2016 |
| 7 | WebEx | Cisco | $3.2 B | Mar 15, 2007 |
| 8 | DoubleClick | $3.1 B | Apr 14, 2007 | |
| 9 | Jet.com | Walmart | $3 B | Aug 7, 2016 |
| 10 | OpenTable | Priceline Group | $2.6 B | Nov 7, 2016 |
| 11 | Zulily | Liberty Interactive | $2.4 B | Aug 17, 2015 |
| 12 | GSI Commerce | eBay | $2.4 B | Mar 28, 2011 |
| 13 | TRADEX | SAP Ariba | $1.86 B | Mar 10, 2000 |
| 14 | KAYAK | Priceline Group | $1.8 B | Nov 8, 2012 |
| 15 | YouTube | $1.65 B | Oct 9, 2006 | |
| 16 | Overture Services | Yahoo | $1.63 B | Jun 14, 2003 |
| 17 | Lynda.com | $1.5 B | Apr 9, 2015 | |
| 18 | PayPal | eBay | $1.5 B | Jul 8, 2002 |
| 19 | eBay India | Flipkart | $1.4 B | Apr 10, 2017 |
| 20 | Avito | Naspers | $1.2 B | Oct 23, 2015 |
| 21 | Billmelater | eBay | $1.2 B | Oct 6, 2008 |
| 22 | Yammer | Microsoft | $1.2 B | Jul 19, 2012 |
| 23 | Zappos | Amazon | $1.2 B | Jul 22, 2009 |
| 24 | Tumblr | Yahoo | $1.1 B | May 17, 2013 |
| 25 | MapQuest | AOL | $1.1 B | Dec 22, 1999 |
| 26 | Art Technology Group | Oracle | $1 B | Nov 2, 2010 |
| 27 | Dollar Shave Club | Unilever | $1 B | Jul 19, 2016 |
| 28 | Ebates | Rakuten | $1 B | Sep 9, 2014 |
| 29 | $1 B | Apr 9, 2012 | ||
| 30 | Lazada Group | Alibaba | $1 B | Apr 12, 2016 |
Final thoughts on Website Sales:
=> Every website I create is a asset I will sell one day.
=> My websites don’t just earn me money every day – they are my retirement fund!
Are you considering selling your online business?
=> Claim Your Free Website Valuation & Exit Strategy Today
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WOW! Those are some big sales
Great list Michael!
Well my gain to fame here is i sold a web site a long time ago for a cool 20000 pounds site was making on avarage of 500 a day. i sold due no time to fill the orders i belive the buyers redirect the traffic to there traffic sites. now sometimes i wish i had not sold it but was long hours for small amount of cash in my eyes.
Micheal this is really excellent prices
I wonder if anyone sold a blog (worthy one) on Blogger if you could know and make few reports because this will give us an idea about where blogging market going on.
what is your overall analysis about the prices and popularity of these sites? i could not find any single stable factor ?
A MS transaction at the top of this list surprise anyone?
Good list, goes to show that if it’s good, the hard work pays off…
Now this is an awesome list with all the biggies compiled at once place
Nice list, Michael
A lot of companies there bought out by Yahoo.
I wonder how many they have bought recently compared to Google and how they are looking now that Google’s growth has expanded so much more.
Is that meant to be a comma on the last set of zeros? One hundred million for Feedburner back in 2007 Phew!!
Another top list Michael!
“How much do you plan to sell your website one day?”
I don’t know if I would want to sell unless I could no longer contribute to any of them for some reason or I knew that for the subscribers/viewers benefit that I had took it as far as I could and selling it would take it to the next level.
As long as it is profitable, managable and still enjoyable/of interest I’d like to think I would see it till the end of my days.
Question is, would that be a wise move?
Thanks Stuart Usually when you sell your still work for the website for a while, so you would still be able to help your readers.
Best to sell when your at the top of your game!
Great list Michael!
Thanks for this inspiring list Mike.
Good list Michael, and a very good point about keeping the end in mind. Many times we become obsessed with the pitiful few first pennies we earn here and there … but the end product is what we need to focus on.
Notice that most of those valuable properties are not blogs, also, and many are “social sites”, so in the flagship blog versus social traffic arguments that often beark out in the blogosphere, keep that in mind. You could make the next Youtuibe … after all, what could be simpler than a site that just let’s people upload videos and let’s others view them?
Not sure if I would sell mine, unless I sold me whole company, which I have no plans to do. Might go public, still keeping shares or just get some great managers….
I can understand why some people would sell though, but not sure this is a move for me… guess we’ll have to see what the funture holds
Wow thats a great list and amazing amounts of money!
Great list. Any chance you could share your sources for this kind of info? – & don’t just say Google
Wow, another amazing list. Fascinating to see the value of online real estate
Never knew myspace was bought out, Guess I’m behind the times.
So Yahoo spent 12.26 Billion since 1999 on companies and now they are in very tough times. I’m not saying spending a lot is necessarily a bad thing, but sometimes you can’t put a square peg in a round hole….no matter how many pegs you buy.
Spending is a good thing, it just shows they didn’t always invest in the right things.
It will be interesting to see how Yahoo! do in the next year or so.
I thought I’d see Hotmail up there, sold to Microsoft for $400,000,000 in 1997.
Sorry James, missed that site, sure their are a few that should be up their that I must of forgot.
A lot of the big money was spent right at the beginning when people didn’t quite understand what and where the Internet was going.
It’s amazing how much big companies are willing to pay for a solid demographic user base! Sure it’s about the content and technology too, but it’s really all about having thousands of users that are highly engaged with your web property.
Exactly! I had a offer from someone to build a large website for entrepreneurs and he said he would aim to sell it for $70 a user which is crazy money but based on past sales, not impossible!
Don’t mislead yourself. These are business aquisition of eComerce and site related company assets. The valuation for a property includes web relate assets, but ALWAYS takes into account the customer base and potential as well.
Gud list Michael!!
Those are prices paid for acquisitions of actual companies, not “sales of websites.”
Build your website up as much as you like, but it means nothing unless there is a corporation behind it.
Over 90% of these companys all just started as a website idea and I think your not looking at the bigger picture here. This is where it all starts guys…. a couple friends working after they get back from their job and crashing on their sofa
Hey Michael, Great List.
I would love to sell my website when I have the highest bidder.
Hmmmm, not all of these are websites – Aquantive, Blue Lithium, 24/7 real media and Tacoda are all ad networks that come with huge technology and advertiser/publisher clients and Htiwise is a web metrics service. Good list though, and interesting about how much Yahoo! have spent (add Kelkoo to their list as well and it gets even bigger).
Tip is if you want to really make big money develop some cool technology to help sell ads better than anyone else, build up a big publisher and advertiser client base and then you’ll have all of the large ad agency networks plus the online tech & portal companies queuing up to buy you.
Sweet jesus I wish that was one of my sites on their.
Interesting how there was a lot of acquisitions in 2007 but very few in 2008. Even before the economy hit hard times.
Sweet list. Thanks!
Very inspired
Wow! A site for 6 Million!? Incredible!
Makes you wonder how much those site creators got…. (goes to by every 2 word domain possible)
Niiice post thanks so much for this useful info
Really never ceases to amaze me at the number of $ sales some websites go for. Great list, great motivator too, thanks.
$6,333,000,000???? Didn’t know a website was ever sold for that amount…
this list is insane and such an inspiration !
Trademe in New Zealand sold for around NZD 700 m which was about USD350m at the time. Mid 2006 I think.
I trade a website before, a very simple website in forum and make me $200. I can see the potential here selling a website. Now, i will be putting effort on some of my websites and plan to sell them off one day in the future. Of course i am not aiming for such a big acquired price, something lies between $20k to $50k would be good enough at the moment.
Wow this is shocking amounts, i cant even think this large numbers !
It seems to me, that if you like your blog and earn on it – you don`t want to sell it any time. More older blog, more much love
I just knew that Aquantive is the most high priced internet purchase. wow! what a figure.
Now I’m working to sell my Photoblog, BabesofAmerica.com.
Very new and has not more than 100 membership yet.
This Photoblog has collection of American Celebrity Wallpaper. Mostly earn money from Google Adsense.
Wow I had no idea YouTube sold for $1.6 billion, that’s insane!
and How much is incomediary.com If I want to buy it ?
Nice list ! I hope one day my website will be on a list like this.
A quarter of a billion for Photobucket. Wow.
Now there’s a smart buy!
Well, now you need to include the Zappos Amazon deal, for $928 Mil
How much is ONE user worth and HOW OFTEN can you sell the same user? Seems the internet is a place where human has worth.
Wow,
I knew the insane amounts for some of these virtual estates was mind boggling but when you list them , one suddenly realizes what these companies are basing their values.
Its the lifetime value their looking and and future earnings from all the eyeballs .
These figures are not just for domains but also the site infrastructure.
Mind you – just look at Twitter – Some figures banying around say they are worth $10 B
Thanks for that list.
I would love to sell websites. I think it is one of the best business models. I am seriously looking at it. You can buy a website from someone tweak it and then sell it for some good money. This can be big. It is really one my goals. I know some people who are doing it.
Very nicely done. All it takes is a dream and motivation. So many have started from their basement with an idea and never gave up. One that comes to mind is Bonanzle.com. Started with two guys and a vision that has gained rapid growth of 100,000 members in their first year. There are so many others as well that have gone from unemployed and broke to millionaire status in a very short time. Anything is possible with the right mindset. Best Wishes and good luck in reaching your goals.
Thanks for the summary of the sales. Also, please note that there are not any in the last couple of years.
What does that say? Nothing? Lots?
Keep up the great work.
Thanks for the summary of the sales. Also, please note that there are not any in the last couple of years.
What does that say? Nothing? Lots?
Keep up the great work.
Love this post, Keep doing.
What about the comparison shopping sites?
eBay bought Shopping.com in 2005 for $620 million.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_comparison_service
I hope my blog would sell for at least half the price of #1 site