I guess you already know that Perez Hilton was offered $20 million as a part of buyout his blog PerezHilton.com by Eight Days., Zack Taylor Group and Dirty World, LLC. – $18 million up front, and $2 million in escrow for a year. You can find the legal documents here via Celebrity-Gossip.net.
As soon as the proposal came out, Perez Hilton rejected the offer and responded at an interview with US Weekly Magazine:
US Weekly Magazine: There are reports you’re getting ready to sell your blog for $20 million. Would you do that to enter to music business full time?
Perez Hilton: No. What’s so funny about that is that it was clearly a pathetic publicity stunt by these two competing gossip blogs, and the media got tricked into believing it and picking it up as a story. I’m kind of flattered that people want to use me for press, it means I’m relevant. I don’t want to sell, because [blogging] is not a job for me, and I don’t know what I’d do without it.
In response to that Zack Taylor said:
The funny thing is that we were 100% serious about this offer, and I personally find the way Perez responded publicly to our business inquiry to be very ignorant, and a poor reflection of his character / brand… Maybe he should have done some research on everything for once, or contacted our lawyers, before jumping to conclusions.
Hopefully he won’t regret turning down this once-in-a-lifetime deal!!
My question: Is Perez Hilton the real loser?
Let’s see some stats:
- Perez Hilton is probably the most loved and hated blogger in Hollywood. He was ranked No:1 Web Celeb by Forbes for 2010.
- PerezHilton.com is not just a website, it’s his brand. None know him with his real name, Mario Armando Lavandeira, Jr. His unique blogging style, specially the his own captions or “doodles” on the pictures made him famous. In one hand, celebrities sue Perez for rumors, on the other hand Katy Perry turns up to his birthday party on an elephant. Can you buy this with money?
- PerezHilton.com was ranked No:4 most expensive websites by 24/7 Wall St in last year. They said “PerezHilton is in an extremely competitive part of the online entertainment content business. If the founder leaves, the site is worth almost nothing. With the founder staying, the business is worth $32 million, about 6x operating income.“
- According to Perez Hilton’s own statistics his website gets averages 280 million impressions and 13.5 million unique readers per month. I checked Compete.com and found the following stats:
Avid Life Media bought HotOrNot.com for $20 million in 2008. Buyers own websites; HotOrNot.com, TheDirty.com, ZackTaylor.ca are getting 554,120 unique visitors when PerezHilton.com got 1,744,191 alone in April, 2010. More than double! Huh! - In SEO value, PerezHilton.com has Google PageRank 7, 13k Google Backlink, 201k pages indexed in Google. This site is ranked No:1 for many keywords; like celebrity gossip.
There is no exact way to value a website. Perez Hilton is nothing without PerezHilton.com and vice versa. If you are passionate about your blog, it should be invaluable to you. I firmly believe Perez took the right decision.
What do you think?
Take care, bye.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Perez Hilton definitely took the right decision. His achievement is really motivating.
I liked what he said in his interview “I don’t want to sell, because [blogging] is not a job for me, and I don’t know what I’d do without it.”
That’s the spirit of a true blogger. Hats off to him.
Well… it looks like PH does not blog for money after all! Good for him!