Internet Society Says Opportunity to Sell .org TLD to Private Equity Biz Came Out of the Blue
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Submitted via IRC for chromas
Analysis The price tag for one of the internet's largest and most important domain-name registries has finally been revealed: $1.135bn.
That is how much unknown private equity company Ethos Capital, funded by the investment vehicles of US billionaires, has offered the Internet Society (ISOC) to take over the .org registry; a move that has caused weeks of controversy that show no sign of slowing.
The figure was finally revealed by CEO of ISOC Andrew Sullivan at a webinar late last week. "I have only just now received permission to disclose a new piece of information, that we have not been able to disclose before," he told online attendees.
"And that is the amount of money that the Internet Society is receiving under this. I am sorry I wasn't able to send it around, but this is new information that we will post later today. The total purchase price in this case is $1.135bn."
The level of secrecy over the deal has been one of the most significant concerns over the proposed sale, which will shift more than 10 million .org domains to a for-profit company after having spent the past 16 years run by the non-profit organization Public Internet Registry (PIR), that was itself set up, and is wholly owned, by the non-profit Internet Society (ISOC). Specifically, the deal involves Ethos taking over PIR, thus taking over the top-level domain it oversees.
Previously: ICANN Eliminates .org Price Cap Despite Overwhelming Opposition
.ORG TLD Sold to Investment Firm Ethos Capital
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