While writing in my Blog, I looked forever to find the official price Major League Baseball payed for MLB.com back in 2000.

 

Anyone know the answer?

This document doesn't name a price, but it does say that Baseball and the previous owner of MLB.com had a long standing relationship. The transfer process was confidential, but still pretty cordial.

 

Link

 

MORGAN LEWIS PITCHES WEB ADDRESS TO MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL

 

SEPTEMBER 6, 2000 -- Major League Baseball and Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP, the

nation's fourth largest law firm, jointly announced today that the law firm has transferred its

domain name - mlb.com- to Major League Baseball.

 

With this transfer, Morgan Lewis will use www.morganlewis.com as its Web address and

morganlewis.comas its e-mail domain name. For the first ten days of the transfer, users who go

to www.mlb.com will be given the choice of linking to either the Major League Baseball or

Morgan Lewis Web site. After that and for an unspecified period of time, fans will be able to

access Major League Baseball on the Web at either mlb.com or MajorLeagueBaseball.com.

Eventually, Major League Baseball's Web address exclusively will be mlb.com, as will its e-

mail address. That announcement will be made at a later date.

 

Morgan Lewis registered the mlb.com domain name in 1994, and launched its Web site two

years later, in 1996. Since that time, the firm has moved more toward emphasizing Morgan

Lewis as its brand, and Major League Baseball has expanded the use of the MLB mark. This

decision solidifies Morgan Lewis' branding strategy to promote the portion of its name that is

best known, while helping a valued client achieve its marketing objectives.

 

Major League Baseball and Morgan Lewis have enjoyed a long professional relationship that

dates back to the late-1980s when the law firm began representing Major League Baseball in

labor negotiations. The two organizations recently met to consider under what circumstances it

would make sense to transfer the domain name and they entered into a confidential transfer

agreement last month.

 

"We thank Morgan Lewis for transferring the domain name to Major League Baseball," said

Baseball Commissioner Allan H. (Bud) Selig. "The use of the initials 'MLB' as our domain name

will make it easier and more convenient for all of our fans around the world to interact with

Major League Baseball."

 

"This is a win-win for Morgan Lewis, Major League Baseball and its fans," says Francis M.

Milone, chairman of Morgan Lewis, noting that clients more frequently refer to the firm as

"Morgan Lewis" than by its initials.

 

Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP, with more than 1,100 lawyers in 12 offices domestically and

abroad, ranks among the top 10 law firms in the world. The firm represents many Fortune 250 companies, top biotechnology and e-commerce sector businesses, as well as leading financial

services and investment banking organizations.

 

MajorLeagueBaseball.com (mlb.com), the official Web site of Major League Baseball, offers

fans the most complete baseball information on the Web, including up-to-date statistics, game

summaries, extensive historical information, and exclusive features about Major League Baseball

events and programs.

thanks....I remember knowing it when it happened. But for some reason it escapes me.

It's ironic that the law firm representing MLB also originally owned the mlb.com domain name.

 

*waits for PhishPhan to say it's not ironic*