PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. — ICM Registry today said that the Sex.xxx domain has been acquired by Barron Innovations — the operator of PussyCash.com, WebcamWiz.com and ImLive.com — as part of a $5 million, multiyear deal.
The deal also includes more than 40 “premium” generic keyword domains, including Cam.xxx, Phone.xxx and Black.xxx, as well as Web.xxx, Market.xxx, Mate.xxx and Education.xxx.
Stuart Lawley, the CEO of ICM Registry, said that the deal has taken almost a year to put together, and that the buyer conducted in depth due diligence on the performance of the .xxx names in SEO, conversion rates and bounce rates before making the decision to buy the names.
Lawley noted that the acquisition price for just the Sex.xxx name was $3 million.
Barron Innovations will be placing significant development resources behind creating ultra-high quality destination sites, said Shay Efron, spokesman for Barron.
“As part of a group which operates leading brands such as ImLive.com and WebcamWiz.com, we tracked the introduction of .xxx closely,” Efron said. “We have studied the undeniably superior performance of .xxx domains in terms of SEO and conversion rates and decided to make a huge splash by acquiring the very best keyword generic names available.
“We evaluated Sex.xxx, the flagship domain, and decided it has the potential to become the leading brand in the entire adult industry, so it was an obvious part of a very large deal,” Efron said. “We look forward to enjoying the benefits of ICM’s unique domain matching program, which gives .xxx holders an opportunity to secure matching .xxx domain names in .porn, .adult and .sex."
Stephen Winyard, director of ICM Registry, said the deal with Barron Innovations “is connected to one of the most prestigious, well-established and highly successful groups in the adult entertainment industry.”
“The group has held its top position for most of its 15 -year existence,” Winyard said. “[W]e are happy to have completed this transaction with Barron Innovations.
“This deal follows on from the ever-increasing flow of significant premium names sales we are achieving now that we are into our third year of operation. It tangibly and irrefutably reinforces the performance benefits of .xxx names for members of the industry.”