Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2001/09/03/oprah_winfrey_gives_bt/

Oprah Winfrey gives BT the 'big O'. Twice

But she wanted paying for it

By Kieren McCarthy

Posted in Legal, 3rd September 2001 12:55 GMT

Oprah Winfrey have given the suits BT something to smile about. In exchange for a fee - although BT is too bashful to say exactly how much - she gave it the "big O". In fact she gave it two cause she's a classy lady. And just as well or BT wouldn't have been able to work otherwise.

Wtf are we talking about? Domain www.O2.com. BT has just rebranded its wireless business mmO2, or O2 for short. It had little trouble getting hold off mmO2 domains but O2, unsurprisingly, proved a little more difficult.

www.O2.com was owned by Oxygen - a US-based company co-founded by chat-show queen Oprah Winfrey. Neither BT nor Oxygen will say how much the telco paid for the domain but let's be honest, it wasn't going to come cheap.

Not only that but the sale of www.O2.co.uk was finalised on Thursday. Again, we don't know how much for but we'll try to find out. ®

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