This is how you close out the year on a high note! With less than six weeks left to go in 2014, the year's biggest domain sale and one of the five highest cash sales reported since we started tracking and verifying domain sales 11 years ago was announced today. GMO Internet, Inc., one of Japan’s leading Internet services providers and operator of the country’s largest domain registrar, purchased Z.com from the Nissan Corporation for a stunning 800 million Japanese yen, which equals $6,784,000 at  today's exchange rate. 

Nissan had once used Z.com to promote their popular Z series sports cars (I bought two of them myself, a 260Z in the 70s, then a 280ZX in the 80s), but had left the domain dormant in recent years. In their press release, GMO Internet said they will use the domain to "spearhead GMO Internet Group global growth strategy, and securing “Z” under the .com Top Level Domain, provides the Group with a powerful tool to build a strong global brand."

We will add this sale to our Year to Date Top 100 Sales Chart when our next weekly domain sales report comes out Wednesday evening (November 26). At that time, Z.com will also take over the #5 position on our list of the biggest all cash domain sales we have reported (prior to the fall of 2003 no one was verifying reported domain sales and there were many instances of claimed sales that later proved to be bogus, so we cannot vouch for any sales reported prior to that time).