Editor’s note: This article was first published in January 2011 as a news item from 11 January 2011, which “today” refers to. The price of fb.com and the plan to use it as the network’s main email domain reflect what was known at that time.
Facebook today revealed, through TechCrunch, the missing half of a story: on 15 November it acquired the domain fb.com, but until now it hadn’t said how much it paid. Facebook bought fb.com from the American organisation Farm Bureau for $8.5 million.
Inside the organisation, Farm Bureau had explained that it had sold the domain, but said it couldn’t reveal the buyer. Well, now we know.
The sale came with just one condition: because Farm Bureau works in agriculture, fb.com can’t be used to sell agricultural products. Mark Zuckerberg has already found a use for the domain anyway: it will be the main address for the network’s email.
Zuckerberg is starting to develop some very expensive tastes.
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Featured image: Coolcaesar, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
