The Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO -- Jack Marshall is on www.easystreet.
Mr. Marshall reportedly was paid $3.35 million from Compaq Computer Corp. for his Web site address www.altavista.com -- a site many mistook for the location of the computer giant's popular search engine.
The San Jose electrical engineer has owned the disputed address since 1994 when he started his company, AltaVista Technology Inc. The price, reported Tuesday in the San Francisco Chronicle, is one of the highest ever paid for an Internet address, industry experts said Tuesday. Neither Mr. Marshall nor Compaq would confirm the amount.
As part of the deal, Compaq agreed to drop a trademark infringement suit.
"We are extremely excited the lawsuit is behind us," Mr. Marshall said.
The previous largest Web address sales record was for about $150,000, said Edwin Hayward, who operates www.igoldrush.com, a Web site that tracks such purchases. Industry observers said Compaq was wise to acquire the address for the search engine, which allows Internet users to find other sites on the Web.
"This is a very savvy move by Compaq," said Ron Rappaport, an industry analyst with Zona Research, an Internet market research firm in Redwood City, Calif. "It's got a compelling search service under its purview. It's got tremendous brand recognition."
But others said the deal could have been bigger.
"It's cheap based on what AltaVista is," said Naseem Javed, president of ABC Namebank International, a nomenclature consulting firm in New York. "These days, it's running in the tens of millions of dollars in establishing brand identity."
The Alta Vista name was not trademarked when Marshall bought the rights in January 1994.
In November 1995, Digital Equipment Corp., now owned by Compaq, launched a search engine called Alta Vista. Because it did not own the Alta Vista address, it was located at www.altavista.digital.com. But the address was confusing and many searchers ended up at Marshall's site, overloading his computer.
A small industry has sprung up around Web "domain names" and their purchase, Rappaport said.
"There are some people that currently ... are sitting on a number of brand names, waiting to sell out to the highest bidder," Rappaport said.
