Glenn Pere and his associates thought they had a winner, but didn't know how much of a winner it would be. 

A lifelong New Yorker who runs an advertising company, Pere says that he and his team were just brainstorming one day and decided to look at available domain names with the word Bloomberg in it.

"The main name that we came up with to our surprise that was available was Bloomberg 2020.org," Pere told WNYC in a telephone interview.

This was October 14th, seven months after Bloomberg had already ruled out a run for president. Still, they bought that domain and 10 other similar ones for $9.99 each and used it to begin selling T-shirts complete with Bloomberg slogans for $20.20. ("Owning It Together!") Then, four weeks later, Bloomberg registered for the Alabama primary and T-shirt sales took off. He says they've sold 2,500 so far.

Bloomberg's legal team asked Pere to note on his home page that it was not affiliated with the former mayor. Pere did that. (The disclaimer disappeared Thursday, to be replaced with an announcement that Bloomberg filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission declaring himself a candidate).

Now Pere says Bloomberg's team is asking if they can buy the domain for an undisclosed sum. He's also received other offers in the six figures.

"You know it goes back and forth in my mind and in our conversations like, you know, he could use this domain," Pere said. "Shouldn't we just give it to him?"

Pere insists he's not a cybersquatter and that he just wanted to protect Bloomberg's name from possible cyberattacks if the domain fell into the wrong hands. But he's not going to turn the money down.

"You know it's an asset that we have. We did not know this would happen," he explained.

Spokespeople for Bloomberg have not responded for a request for comment.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story misstated who offered Pere a six-figure sum for his internet domain. The text was updated Nov. 25.