NORTH POTOMAC

Thursday, April 17, 2008

NORTH POTOMAC

$2.6 Million Worth of Pizza

When Chris Clark bought Pizza.com for $20 in the mid-1990s, he never expected that almost 15 years later, the seemingly benign domain name would sell for $2.6 million.

In 1994, the earliest days of the Internet's popularity, the North Potomac resident was working as a Web site developer. He bought Pizza.com, hoping to entice a major pizza company to the new world of the Web.

"We wanted to put the first pizza company on the Internet," Clark said, referring to his company at the time, Internet Information Services. "At the time, we were explaining what the Internet was to them. . . . It didn't catch on quickly."

Although he was unsuccessful in achieving his goal, he maintained the site, which features a pizza restaurant locator and pizza-related polls and games, over the years.

When Vodka.com recently sold for $3 million, Clark decided to check out the interest in Pizza.com. "We put a forum on the Web site that said, if you're interested in buying the domain name, let us know," Clark said.

The entrepreneur got so much feedback he decided to turn over the bidding to an online auction house, Sedo.com -- the same company that auctioned off Vodka.com -- and watched the offers begin to skyrocket.

"The auction went on for a week," Clark said. "My family was just huddled over the computer watching."

Clark was vacationing in Disney World with his family, watching the auction on a laptop, when the bidding topped $1 million. Soon after, he sold the site for $2.6 million to an anonymous bidder.

"When we saw the final bid, it was far beyond our expectations," Clark said.

He said he hopes to use the proceeds to grow his new software company, Minestream Software, which sells Internet protection software to homes and businesses.

-- ERIN DONAGHUE, Gazette Staff Writer

GAITHERSBURG

St. Rose Kids' Video Shown at Papal Mass

A video created by a group of children at St. Rose of Lima Parish in Gaithersburg was one of three selected in a contest to be played before Pope Benedict XVI's Mass today at Nationals Park in Washington. Forty-seven groups of Catholic children from kindergarten through eighth grade submitted two-minute videos welcoming the pope to the nation's capital. The contest was open to youngsters in the Archdiocese of Washington, the Archdiocese of Baltimore and the Catholic Diocese of Arlington.

Five students from Seton School in Manassas and a group from 12 Catholic schools in Southern Maryland also won. The three groups will each receive 15 tickets to the papal Mass, and their videos will be shown on the stadium's screens before the services begin.

Resurrection Parish Youth Ministry in Burtonsville and a group of pre-kindergartners and kindergartners from St. Michael's School in St. Mary's County received honorable mention.

The 13 finalists included Holy Cross School in Garrett Park and St. Jude School in Rockville.

At St. Rose of Lima, 20 children in grades three to seven in the Children Love Christ Choir sang an original piece by parish composer Margaret Ann Clifford, "Welcome Song to Pope Benedict XVI," according to the Archdiocese of Washington.

"I'm still kind of reeling," Patti Sullins, director of liturgy and music at St. Rose of Lima, said shortly after the results were announced last Thursday. Her 11-year-old daughter, Ruthie, sang in the video.

"It's very exciting," she said.

-- MEGHAN TIERNEY, Gazette Staff Writer