Billionaire Elon Musk reacquired x.com
Billionaire entrepreneur and PayPal founder Elon Musk has reacquired the domain name x.com for an undisclosed sum.
X.com was the domain he acquired in 1999 and originally used for PayPal, before its 2001 rebrand.
Musk, who currently runs private space travel trailblazer SpaceX, confirmed the purchase in a tweet today:
Thanks PayPal for allowing me to buy back https://t.co/bOUOejO16Y! No plans right now, but it has great sentimental value to me.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 11, 2017
The deal was first spotted by domainer/blogger Elliot Silver, who noticed the Whois change.
Musk also seemed to say in a subsequent tweet that he had originally bought x.com back from its original owner in 1999 for stock in the nascent company, which 18 years later would presumably be worth an absolute fortune.
It was a tough negotiation, but they seemed like good guys. I hope they kept the stock. Would be worth a lot today.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 11, 2017
While the price of the 2017 purchase was not disclosed, one has to assume it would be worth millions; pocket change to a man reportedly worth over $15 billion today.
Musk’s corporate $15 billion don’t translate a matching liquidity. His personal net worth is $2.4 billion.
My guesstimate is the deal was under $5 million.
We’ll have to wait for PayPal to file its financials next year.
In general, does the reported net worth of business folk and celebrities usually equal their liquidity?