Edwin - 8:22 am on Mar 17, 2005 (gmt 0)

At the higher (i.e. authority site with major traffic) end of the market, there is a huge "grey" factor to consider, which is replacement cost.

A site that has been building up traffic, links and a very solid industry reputation for 5 years or more is, in some cases, going to be near-impossible to dislodge no matter how much money you throw at the problem, simply because they were there first and the vacuum in that particular niche has been well and truly filled. Suppliers and customers are familiar with the authority site and return to it frequently - meaning any new arrival will be left out in the cold.

The real issue is how to price this. It's an inherently unmeasurable factor (of course, se rankings, incoming links, media mentions, number of supplier relationships etc. are all possible metrics to throw into the mix) since it is based partly on *perception*. But it's probably the nearest thing to the real-world "goodwill" that there is on the web - and as such might end up constituting the bulk of the value of such "desirable" sites.

Sorry, I don't have the answer - but I wanted to throw the above into the mix since often the sites that make the most attractive targets to cash-rich, reputation/traffic-poor companies are going to be exactly those sites that dominate their particular niche.