A pandemic throws a new wrinkle in the deal to sell off .org.
Public Interest Registry, Ethos Capital and Internet Society have agreed to extend the deadline for ICANN to make a decision on the sale of .org to April 20. They want ICANN to decide by this date.
So what happens now?
COVID-19 was a wrinkle no one foresaw. With California in lockdown, both ICANN and the California Attorney General (which is investigating the deal) have a lot on their plates. I could see this going either way: the California AG could decide it has more significant issues to deal with and let this deal slide, or it could ask for more time, which would put the deal at higher risk. We’re in unprecedented territory here, so it’s hard to bet on which of these is more likely.
The world is also now in a cash crunch. Lots of buyers are backing out of deals or renegotiating the terms. But in this highly public deal, it would be almost impossible for Ethos to go back to Internet Society and ask for better terms.
It’s possible that Ethos’ backers are having second thoughts. I also wonder if the $360 million in loans Ethos plans to use to partially finance the deal are in jeopardy.
Of course, COVID-19 will pass. If you were investing in anything right now, a good registry like .org (or .com) is probably the safest bet.
My money has always been for this deal to still happen. But I didn’t think the world’s fifth-biggest economy would go into shutdown, either. Its largest economy probably isn’t far behind
Jack says
Told you it from the start : this .ORG deal is DEAD.
Check this article at DomainIncite :
US senators tell ICANN to reject .org deal
http://domainincite.com/25342-us-senators-tell-icann-to-reject-org-deal
Next thing to concentrate on now is ending Verisign monopoly by bringing competition at the registry level.
David Thornton says
“…But I didn’t think the world’s fifth-biggest economy would go into shutdown, either. Its largest economy probably isn’t far behind….”
India, being the worlds firth-biggest by country, or are you separating out California from the remainder of the US and referring to that?
Andrew Allemann says
California
Observer says
Regarding Verisign, how is it not considering a blatant $20M “bribe” to ICANN so that ICANN would look the other way with the potential for .COM registration/renewals increases?
snoopy1267 says
Probably puts the risk up of selling this to PE, do they have strong backing? What is to stop PIR from getting “passed around” given the weak financial climate?
The 10% (or more) prices rises are looking more and more unjustifiable.
Andrew Allemann says
I don’t see anything stopping it from being passed around, other than ICANN’s option to deny an ownership transfer.