Major new TLD applicant says it will withdraw four applications after discussions with governments.
Top Level Domain Holdings, a publicly traded pure play applicant for new top level domains (London: TLDH), plans to withdraw four of its top level domain applications after receiving government advice.
In a release issued today, the company writes:
The GAC strongly advised against four gTLDs, none of which TLDH applied for. Another 513 gTLDs were given some kind of advice by the GAC, ranging from serious reservations to desired improvements. The Company has decided as a consequence of these warnings, and after discussion with relevant governments, to withdraw four of its applications: .FREE, .SALE, .SPA and .ZULU.
All of the domains the company will withdraw are contested except for .zulu.
The company also said it anticipates that ICANN will have signed contracts for “over a hundred” new TLDs by the time of ICANN’s July meeting in South Africa. It believes it will take about three months after a contract is signed until a TLD launches.
Its simple – they are quickly running out of cash and must withdraw to stay in the game on the others. Can’t wait to see their next set of accounts!
ZULU is probably dead with the GAC and ICANN, but the others are not.
there will be more of these withdrawals coming…
.zulu was often cited as a raison d’être for the new gTLD progam….
http://archive.icann.org/en/ceo/ceo-message-21jul09-en.htm
The Internet has historically thrived whenever the system is opened up further to allow users to express their creativity and innovation. We are now working on opening up the top-level domains so that not only nations but also other peoples and groups can have a unique identity on the Internet.
For example, the chief of the Zulu tribe, His Majesty King Goodwill Zwelithini kaBhekuzulu, recently sent a letter…
“The Company has decided as a consequence of these warnings..” That has to be the weakest excuse I have seen so far. Spa, Free and sale were going to be stopped by governments? come on.
The only warning they need to be paying attention to is the low balance warning they are getting from the bankers.
TLDH is short on cash and the only reason for withdrawal is to get some refund money. Why else would they emphasized that in the release?
When is their next earnings report due?
TLDH has a bunch of other strings that were named in gac advice. I guess they will be withdrawing those too?
Strings like law, lawyer, cps, baby, etc.