Top 30 Website Sales Of All Time

A lot has changed since we first published Top 30 Website Sales Of All Time back in March 2009.
In this, our 2017 update we feature some brand new websites such as JET.com and Lynda.com.
All 30 website sales have been at valuations of over 1 Billion USD and the largest grossing exit was for 26.2 Billion!
Truly starting a website is still one of the best routes to riches!
If you are planning to sell your website one day then there can be no better advice than to start with the end in mind or as Ryan Allis succinctly puts it:

“You have to work with the end in mind and every day make sure your working towards it”

That last bit is particularly important:
Ask yourself daily – are you working towards your goals?
The entrepreneurs who founded the businesses below are outstanding examples of starting with the end in mind and working towards your goals.
I am inspired, I hope you are too!
Special Notes:
a) We are focused on successful Website Sales by founding entrepreneurs. We have not included businesses that went public (eg Facebook and Twitter) – However an number of the successful Website Sales have been as a result of the business being bought by Public Companies.
b) Not all Website Sales worked out well for the purchaser. An example of that was Microsoft paying over 6 Billion in cash for online display advertising company aQuantive in 2007 (No 2 in our list)

Top 30 Website Sales Of All Time

1	LinkedIn	Microsoft	$26.2 B	Dec 8, 2016
2	Aquantive	Microsoft	$6.33 B	Aug 10, 2007
3	Yahoo	Verizon	$4.5 B	Jun 13, 2017
4	Geocities	Yahoo	$3.6 B	May 28, 1999
5	Chewy	PetSmart	$3.35 B	Apr 18, 2017
6	Allegro	Permira	$3.3 B	14 Oct, 2016
7	WebEx	Cisco	$3.2 B	Mar 15, 2007
8	DoubleClick	Google	$3.1 B	Apr 14, 2007
9	Jet.com	Walmart	$3 B	Aug 7, 2016
10	OpenTable	Priceline Group	$2.6 B	Nov 7, 2016
11	Zulily	Liberty Interactive	$2.4 B	Aug 17, 2015
12	GSI Commerce	eBay	$2.4 B	Mar 28, 2011
13	TRADEX	SAP Ariba	$1.86 B	Mar 10, 2000
14	KAYAK	Priceline Group	$1.8 B	Nov 8, 2012
15	YouTube	Google	$1.65 B	Oct 9, 2006
16	Overture Services	Yahoo	$1.63 B	Jun 14, 2003
17	Lynda.com	LinkedIn	$1.5 B	Apr 9, 2015
18	PayPal	eBay	$1.5 B	Jul 8, 2002
19	eBay India	Flipkart	$1.4 B	Apr 10, 2017
20	Avito	Naspers	$1.2 B	Oct 23, 2015
21	Billmelater	eBay	$1.2 B	Oct 6, 2008
22	Yammer	Microsoft	$1.2 B	Jul 19, 2012
23	Zappos	Amazon	$1.2 B	Jul 22, 2009
24	Tumblr	Yahoo	$1.1 B	May 17, 2013
25	MapQuest	AOL	$1.1 B	Dec 22, 1999
26	Art Technology Group	Oracle	$1 B	Nov 2, 2010
27	Dollar Shave Club	Unilever	$1 B	Jul 19, 2016
28	Ebates	Rakuten	$1 B	Sep 9, 2014
29	Instagram	Facebook	$1 B	Apr 9, 2012
30	Lazada Group	Alibaba	$1 B	Apr 12, 2016

Final thoughts on Website Sales:

=> Every website I create is a asset I will sell one day.

• => My websites don’t just earn me money every day – they are my retirement fund!