A well-heeled Internet start-up company said on Tuesday it had paid a record $7.5 million (€7.45 million) for the coveted Net address Business.com.

The buyer, Internet business incubator ECompanies, based in Santa Monica, is betting the hefty price tag for such a memorable Web address will help jump-start its newest venture, which also will be called Business.com.

The price tag far surpasses the $3.35 million that Compaq Computer paid a California technology company last year to buy rights to the AltaVista.com name for its Internet search engine.

"I'd say it's a bargain" for the Business.com name, said Mr Joe Butt, director of consumer technology research for Forrester Research in Cambridge, Mass. "It sounds like a lot of money for a website, but that's a classic [address]."