Jon

I just got off of the phone with a pretty well known person who runs a company that snaps up big properties and he offered me $16 million for WickedFire. The whole offer was $16M over 3 years or $11 million at one shot. Needless to say, I turned him down without even thinking twice about it.

I am not posting this to brag either. I told him I'd be posting about it and he seemed okay with it and said "are you sure you don't want to think it over for a week?". He had sounded pretty surprised about me turning him down too. By far one of the strangest business phone conversations I've had in a long time.

While we were chatting for the whole 12 minutes or so that it lasted for, I brought to his attention that we have ZERO revenue here, and that we are under a year old. Even if we had revenue coming in, I doubt it would go anywhere over the $2M/year mark. He said something to the tune of "I've been hearing a lot about your forum, and if it's grown that quickly at such an early stage, I'm kind of shocked that no one has made a similar offer for it sooner". Well, we did have an offer about a month ago for a few million dollars, but I laughed at the person because I didn't think he was serious.

I know for a fact that this offer was legitimate and that the person/company is reputable, so there is no issue about that. I just find it pretty surreal to turn down an offer like that and not be phased out by it.

2007 is going to be a weird year, and surreal in so many ways I think.

/vent

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DruSam

You need more angry smilies for this to be a vent. But really, I would say yes to $16M before my rational mind realizes what I did. I know this place is special and all Jon, but $16 million for 8 months work? shit.

owningmonkey

take it and go on a long vacation.. you deserve it. Start something better (if thats even possible)

barman

SELL SELL SELL and distribute the profits amongst the members! Divie it up by posts per user.

:: sneaks away to post more ::

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illusion

That guy is an idiot, you don't buy forums that you haven't checked out before, half of the forums have gotten so big because there owners have pushed it to the end of the earth and back.

Nice work Jon, at least we know some mogul is gonna persuade you into buying it

kaveman

niiiiiice, glad to see you didnt sell out, you da man

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wfx

That's $4820 per forum member.

Andrew

[R]DeVore

I understand why you wouldn't sell, but I understand also why you SHOULD. I know wickedfire is something you hold close to you, but for 16M, I would rethink it for a day or two man. Seriously.

engaged

april fools already.???? hahahaha

DavidR

I think it's more about reputation than money.

lerchmo

Edit, 3,319 members!!!! 97k posts $4800 per member??? this guy needs to have a look at my 50 member forum, 250k anyone?

97,422 members, and hes willing to pay 16million? how the fuck does someone that dumb have 16million dollars laying around? what the fuck?? are webmasters even that hot of a niche? fuck

engaged

*alrert* i just bought google.com... they gave me a price break... 2 billion.... the deal will be announced monday afternoon... sell your GOOG fast.

DruSam

lol, then I would unreputably have more money than anyone.

Mike

Good call Jon! As enticing as $16m is, I'm glad to see that you value the forum and it's membership more than just money.

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surly

This forum would die the second someone else took over.

wickedDUDE

16 million? 2 million? why do I have trouble believing you. nobody offers 16 million for a site that is making $0.

and bull shit.. like you wouldn't take the money... if you were smart you would take the 16 mil, just like any other businessman, start another forum like wickedfire with a different name, for like 1000 bucks, and being that you have a VERY loyal fan base, you would have no problem at all getting that one off the ground. heck everyone here would follow you over there.

i'm sorry but i'm not as gullible as the other forum members on this board.. maybe someone made an offer like this as a joke, but theres no way they could be serious.

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lerchmo

I wonder if you could get 16million on sitepoint. you could probably get sitepoint, digitalpoint webmasterworld and earners forum for 16million.

Moon54

Awesome, Jon. :0

Must have seemed like a real Twilight Zone moment or something, lol.
I'm pretty sure a lot of people would be tempted by 16 with that amount of zeros after it. It would sure buy a LOT of traffic, hehe.

lerchmo

tempted??? I would sell my fathers testicles before I was born for 16mm

Mike

Okay, smart guy, why lie about something like this then? For the drama? There's enough drama on this board without creating more just for the hell of it.

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DruSam

What do you think was happening during the dot com bust? Companies were buying sites for millions that were spending VC money extravagantly and making next to nothing or losing money. I wouldn't say nobody.

kyleirwin

surly

is that fiona apple?

lerchmo

for 16million I could buy 10,000 chinese babies and raise them to be the ultimate forum posters from birth, they would know nothing but the art of posting in webmaster forums!

engaged

seo_mike and moon are you guys fucking retarded???

sebastya

i would've sold it in a second..make a new forum just like this and recruit everyone here to go there..

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Italiandude

BULL SHIT!

dicetomato

Yeah no offense to you Jon, but that's rather hard to believe.

Are you doing this for a linkbait?

wickedDUDE

for press coverage. the media loves this shit. and i remember back when jon posted his cj stats on sitepoint he got the same kind of response from the media with people wanting to interview him, etc.

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DruSam

Oh now I see the point of this thread! Gets the lurkers off their ass. Brilliant idea Jon.

lerchmo

if you could make 2m a year off us I would call you jesus.

Moon54

Value, just like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.
I'm sure the prospective buyer is Smart and looking at the BIG picture.
Lets see;

• fast-growing forum,
• great members,
• top Affiliate & IM marketers are present,
• great info that can not even be found in paid forums,
• the list goes on....

Lol, lerchmo, but wouldn't that mean you wouldn't exist, hehe...

lerchmo

no fucking shit

lerchmo

after making a fucktarded post like that I find your evaluation of this dudes intelligence to not really mean shit.

Mike

Probably. But I'll need a second opinion on that....

Yep, my other personality agrees with you.

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Deliguy

Thats it! i'm starting up WickedDookie.com
its a great new webmaster forum. Anyone want to join?

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lerchmo

you have 3 members yet? I have 15 grand with your name on it!!

wickedDUDE

i'll start wickeddude.com, i'll get $5 mil for it, easy.

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"I need a wickedfire break."

lerchmo

not till you have 900 members dude, dont jump the gun.

jerxs

LMAO!!!!! What a fucked up post! Those fucking Adderal are going to your fucking head!

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Bryan Le

Maybe Jon rejected it in hopes that the guy will buy it for 20 million.

Jon is the next Mark Zuckerberg...or whatever the fuck that idiot's name is. Not that Jon is an idiot...wait, no sell at 16 Million? Not an idiot, but balls indeed!

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DruSam

AHAHAHHA that would be something to see. Jon getting wacked out on adderall and hearing voices telling him about the billions he will get from his brand new sites.

jerxs

LMAO even harder!!!!!

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lerchmo

.................................................. ..........no

rob

That offer is about as real as the WickedFire trademark

jened

you don't think there's any rep boost for developing a 16 million dollar site in 6 months?

JennyAppleseed

This is going on your top 10 list of stupidest things you've ever done.

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Deliguy

lmao you used the wrong search douche bag.

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DruSam

EDIT:: lol deli said it all.

rob

Feel free to show me where it is then :

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