NEW YORK TIMES - De Jager gets two $10 million offers for his Y2K Web site [Peter - if they were submitted by Mr, D, Duck or Mr, N, Bonaparte, they're not for real...:)]

greenspun.com : LUSENET : TimeBomb 2000 (Y2000) : One Thread

January 3, 2000

Web Address Auctioned for $10 Million

By REUTERS

he Web address year2000.com, until now a site for information on the Year 2000 computer problem, has been auctioned for $10 million by owners who said they hoped to find it "a good home."

Now the sellers -- Peter de Jager, a Canadian computer consultant, and the Tenagra Corporation, a Houston-based Internet marketing company -- are waiting to see if the two $10 million offers are bona fide or an online put-on.

The address drew 13 bids on eBay in a 10-day auction that ended Saturday. The price would be a record for a Web address, exceeding the more than $7.5 million paid for business.com in November.

But Cliff Kurtzman, chief executive of Tenagra, said he was not spending the money just yet.

"There have been many incidents of pranks," said Mr. Kurtzman, who was in the midst of contacting the winning party. "But we are optimists. We received two bids at $10 million, and we think there is a fair chance that one or the other is real."

But Mr. de Jager himself, who spent about six years traveling the world warning of potential disaster from the Year 2000 problem, confesses to being "a card-carrying skeptic" in this matter, too.

"I don't even believe it's real," he said. "We will know within seven days."

[ENDS]

-- John Whitley (jwhitley@inforamp.net), January 03, 2000


Moderation questions? read the FAQ