Internet address sex.com attracts $13 million bid

SAN FRANCISCO: An offshore holding company is out to have its way with sex.com for 13 million dollars.

Clover Holdings Limited, based on the Caribbean island of St. Vincent, made the top offer for the hot Sex.com Internet domain name that Escom LLC is being forced to sell due to bankruptcy, according to court documents.

Attorneys representing Escom are asking a California bankruptcy court to approve Clover as the winning bidder and clear the way for the Sex.com deal to be consummated and domain-name trading platform Sedo to get its commissions.

"The proposed sale to buyer was the product of arms-length, good faith negotiations in which the debtor bargained for maximum possible purchase price for the assets," Escom attorney Jeffrey Dulberg wrote in a court filing.

"The negotiations involved substantial time and effort by the parties... and (the agreement) reflects given-and-take and compromises by both sides."

The world's "most valuable" Internet domain name, sex.com, went up for grabs in July of this year after US-based Escom filed for bankruptcy.

Escom is reported to have bought the domain name for from 12 million to 14 million dollars in 2006.

Sedo, which bills itself as the world's biggest trading platform for domain names, has said the sex.com sale "offers the new owner a unique opportunity to become market leader."

There were a dozen bidders vying to get sex.com, according to court paperwork online Wednesday.

Little information about Clover was included in court documents.

Lawyers argued in the filing that "time is of the essence" and asked for a hearing to approve the sex.com sale by October 27.