More than 4,000 people in West Africa have died so far in the largest recorded Ebola outbreak in history. But domain squatter Jon Schultz hopes the disease’s front-page status will spur some pharmaceutical company to shell out the big bucks for Ebola.com.
Schultz and his business partner Chris Hood bought the domain name in 2008 and also own BirdFlu.com, Fukushima.com, and PotassiumIodide.com (“a compound that would be used to fight radiation-induced cancer in the case of a bioterrorism or nuclear attack“).
“Ebola.com would be a great domain for a pharmaceutical company working on a vaccine or cure, a company selling pandemic or disaster-preparedness supplies, or a medical company wishing to provide information and advertise services,” Schultz wrote to CNBC in an email, putting his asking price at $150,000. Pharmaceutical companies do, in fact, own other domain names for common diseases, and Schultz pointed out that similar addresses have sold for millions.
And just how did Schultz get the idea to invest in such creative domain names? “Having seen the movie Outbreak, I was entranced by the subject and couldn’t resist buying the domain,” he said.
In case you’re curious, Intelligencer checked: Ebola.nyc is already gone.
