Travel Website to be Sold to the Highest Bidder

The owner of SouthernNewMexico.com has announced that the website will be sold to the highest bidder on January 31, 2000. SouthernNewMexico.com is the latest in a string of high-profile website and domain name sales. Last week's highly-publicized bid of $10 million for the domain name Year2000.com, which turned out to be a hoax, would have broken the record for the highest amount paid for a domain name, a record previously held by eCompanies' purchase of Business.com for $7.5 million in November 1999. Carla DeMarco, the founder of SouthernNewMexico.com, has decided that it is time to move on to other ventures and pursuits. Unlike the founders of Year2000.com and Business.com, Ms. DeMarco is selling not just the domain name, but also the website behind it, an asset which may well be New Mexico's largest travel/community website, DeMarco says. SouthernNewMexico.com will be sold privately rather than through a public auction venue such as eBay.com.
A finder's fee of $10,000 is being offered by Ms. DeMarco to the first person who submits the name of the ultimate purchaser of SouthernNewMexico.com.Launched in 1997, SouthernNewMexico.com is the market leader on the Internet for provision of travel information relating to Southern New Mexico. The site, which contains over 900 web pages and is affiliated with over 40 freelance writers and 25 chambers of commerce, receives over 16,000 unique visitors per month, with traffic increasing at a rate of 300% per year.Ms. DeMarco, a native of New Mexico, has devoted the past three years to building SouthernNewMexico.com into a successful one-stop resource for travel, leisure, and tourism information on New Mexico. Now she is looking forward to handing over the reins of SouthernNewMexico.com in the new millennium to a company who will carry it to even further heights, she said.Purchase inquiries and suggestions for SouthernNewMexico.com may be sent via fax to 602-532-7218. The minimum bid for the website is
$550,000.Offerswill be accepted until midnight January 31, 2000.