Parasitic Capitalism, Round 2: Ebola.com Sold for $200,000

Two weeks ago, we told you about the money-grubbers of Blue String Ventures, whose business entails squatting on domain names and flipping them for a pretty penny. Their "portfolio" included Ebola.com, which they sold last week for about $200,000 to a company called — and, no, this isn’t a joke — Weed Growth Fund. The ...

John Moore/Getty Images
John Moore/Getty Images
John Moore/Getty Images

Two weeks ago, we told you about the money-grubbers of Blue String Ventures, whose business entails squatting on domain names and flipping them for a pretty penny. Their "portfolio" included Ebola.com, which they sold last week for about $200,000 to a company called -- and, no, this isn't a joke -- Weed Growth Fund.

Two weeks ago, we told you about the money-grubbers of Blue String Ventures, whose business entails squatting on domain names and flipping them for a pretty penny. Their "portfolio" included Ebola.com, which they sold last week for about $200,000 to a company called — and, no, this isn’t a joke — Weed Growth Fund.

The deal for Ebola.com included a mix of cash and stocks, specifically $150,000 in Cannabis Sativa, Inc. The CEO of that company is none other than former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson, the now Libertarian Party provocateur, who in a recent Fox interview suggested that marijuana might — just might! — hold a cure for Ebola.

Naturally, there is no evidence for that claim, but that’s par for the course in this wickedly meaningless corner of the Internet economy. Weed Growth Fund is a strange, possibly Russian company that until recently was known as Ovation Research, which focused on distributing stainless steel cookware. Apparently peddling pot as an Ebola cure has emerged as a more profitable line of business.

Meanwhile, Jon Schultz, the president of Blue String, has a few more disease domains up his sleeve for the next pandemic. Birdflu.com and H1N1.com are both for sale, though probably not yet. The fear level isn’t quite high enough, you see.    

Twitter: @EliasGroll
Tag: Health

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