Buy.com, Incorporated is an online

ONLINE

ONLINE is a magazine for information systems first published in 1977. The publisher Online, Inc. was founded the year before. In May 2002, Information Today, Inc. acquired the assets of Online Inc....

 retailer based in Aliso Viejo, California

Aliso Viejo, California

Aliso Viejo is a city in Orange County, California. It had a population of 47,823 as of the 2010 census, up from 40,166 as of the 2000 census. It became Orange County's 34th city on July 1, 2001, the only city in the county to incorporate since 2000...

.

Buy.com began by selling computers and electronics

Electronics

Electronics is the branch of science, engineering and technology that deals with electrical circuits involving active electrical components such as vacuum tubes, transistors, diodes and integrated circuits, and associated passive interconnection technologies...

 in 1997 and has since expanded into many other categories. Initially Buy.com sold items below cost and intended to make up the losses "from the sale of advertising and ancillary services like warranties and equipment leases." Buy.com sold $111 million worth of goods and services in 1998, its first full year, beating Compaq

Compaq

Compaq Computer Corporation is a personal computer company founded in 1982. Once the largest supplier of personal computing systems in the world, Compaq existed as an independent corporation until 2002, when it was acquired for US$25 billion by Hewlett-Packard....

's record for most first-year sales of any company.
Founder Scott Blum sold his stake to SoftBank

SoftBank

is a Japanese telecommunications and internet corporation, with operations in broadband, fixed-line telecommunications, e-Commerce, Internet, broadmedia, technology services, finance, media and marketing, and other businesses....

 in 1999 for $195 million just before the company first filed to go public.