More slowdowns for .web domain name.
A lawyer for domain name registry Afilias says the company plans to file a Cooperative Engagement Process (CEP) and subsequent Independent Review Process (IRP) should ICANN move forward with delegating .Web to Nu Dot Co.
Nu Dot Co won the auction to operate .web for $135 million. It was bankrolled by Verisign (NASDAQ:VRSN), and Nu Dot Co had an agreement with Verisign to assign rights to the domain after it completed contracting.
Afilias was one of the companies that was upset; it was the runner-up in the auction.
Donuts pursued the matter as well. It was disappointed that Nu Dot Co forced an auction of last resort rather than a private auction in which Donuts would get to split the proceeds. After going through ICANN’s accountability processes it sued ICANN. A court tossed the case out because new TLD applicants agreed not to sue, but Donuts appealed. The appeals court has yet to hand down its decision. Oral arguments will likely occur this fall.
Adding to the delays was the U.S. government, which launched an antitrust investigation into Verisign running what many people think is the best new top level domain. The government closed its investigation without taking action.
Afilias is asking ICANN to give it a 60 day “heads up” when it starts contracting with Nu Dot Co so that it can file for CEP.
Is their goal just to delay?
Good question. Another strategy could be to wait and see what happens with the donuts lawsuit, so delay filing the irp until then. Honestly I think affiliate is lucky it didn’t win the domain at such a high price
That price is what Affilias was willing to pay for .web. Verisign actually offered more, but only has to pay what Afilias offered.
Right, and I think they would have regretted paying so much
If I understand this right, are you saying affilias bid was for 135M and NuDotCo’s bid was even more. It is just because NuDotCo won, it just gets the contract by paying what 2nd highest bidder was willing to pay?
On another note, I think 135M for .web might be a fair price to pay for verisign. Assuming It is priced at 8$(for first time and renewals like COM), that investment can be recovered in 8 years assuming average net of registrations and renewals are about 2.5M a year. I think 2.5M will be a number that will be hit first 3,4 years. This is a very conservative estimate.
I don’t think, operating .WEB doesn’t amount to much expense wise given they have been operating a much bigger TLD very well. This can be just a plug and play.
The .Web soap opera continues. Until next time, on the Web We Weave. Lol
By the time .WEB launches, it might have the field to itself, in a sense.
During 2014-2016, there were many nTLD releases – each distracting from the others. So if .WEB launches during a lull in TLD releases, its impact might be greater. Even if it arrives after the army of early nTLDS has already stormed the castle, it will be alone on stage when it arrives.
Unless, of course, .WEB’s release is delayed to coincide with a 2nd round of nTLDs.
With or without incentives from Verisign, registrars will want to promote .WEB. After all, it gives them something new to sell. And if nothing else around that time is new, then .WEB will be the only news, the only story.
Verisign would be crazy to wait until the 2nd round of nTLD’s.
Do we have any news?