Chris Clark of North Potomac, Md., registered the name in 1994, when trying to snare a contract with a pizza company for his Internet consulting firm.

The contract never happened, but Clark kept up the annual registration fee and sold the site Thursday for $2.6 million to an anonymous bidder.

Over the years it had made Clark and a partner a small profit as a pizza delivery directory, the Baltimore Sun reported.

But, in 2006 Clark heard the name "vodka.com" sold for $3 million and he realized he was onto something.

He advertised his site was for sale and got offers of six figures. So, he turned to Sedo, the online auction house that sold the "vodka.com" name.

On March 27, the bidding for "pizza.com" started out at $100. The final bid Thursday was for $2.6 million.

"In '94, you could have just registered everything and anything," Clark told the paper ruefully. "I think about that now, yeah," he said.