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Answers Corporation buys three generic domains - Dictionary.com, Thesaurus.com and Reference.com - from Lexico Publishing Group LLC for $100 million.

From Search Engine Land:

These properties attracted 11.5 million unique monthly users in the U.S. during the month of June 2007 according to comScore. They generated revenues of $7 million, EBITDA of $2.9 million and net income of $2.8 million in 2006.

This is a business acquisition and not just a domain sale, but it’s still great news for generic domain owners. I believe the sale price would not have been anywhere close to the $100 million had the domains been of lower quality. From the press release:

“Dictionary.com’s success is built on its unique, descriptive domain name and simple, straightforward interface,” explained Bruce D. Smith, Chief Strategic Officer. “According to a Hitwise analysis of 2006 search terms, ‘dictionary’ was the second most popular ‘generic’ search term on the Internet. Lexico’s Web properties clearly are well-known brands that we hope will remain the standard for people looking up definitions online. More than anything, we’re acquiring a solid user base that we believe will provide steady direct traffic and attractive growth.”

One of the greatest benefits of owning a generic domain name is that it receives direct navigation traffic from the get-go and that people exactly know what they are looking for when they type in a generic domain. This is very high-converting traffic and very valuable for every business on the Internet.