Re: [ga] Registrar acquisition and merger policy

[Jeff Williams <jwkckid1@ix.netcom.com>]

WXW and all assembly members,

William X. Walsh wrote:

> The recent purchase of Registrars.com by Verisign, who also purchased
> NameSecure.com, has made me realize that the ICANN needs to
> incorporate policy documents governing acquisition policies.

  This is not possible with publicly held companies unless the SEC,
FTC and the FCC advise or otherwise determine that such and acquisition
would detrimentally impact competition.  In the case of Verisign
acquiring Register.com that threshold was evidently not considered
to be met, and therefore the acquisition was not opposed.  Any
contract or clause in the White/Green papers could not have
prevented such acquisitions or similar one in the future.

  I discussed this in part during the ongoing debate regarding the
Verisign redo of the contract with ICANN regarding splitting
out .net, .org from .com.  Now that that contract is approved
by DOC, gave Verisign a green light to buy out nearly whomever
they wish in the registrar business as well as any new Registries
that may come along such as .BIZ and .INFO for example...
Food for future thought perhaps??

  In addition Versign is under not restriction to buy out privately
held companies (non publicly traded stock companies) that are
registries or registrars also.  Could Atlantic.net, ORSC, or even
New.net be a possibility?  Yes they could and possibly one or
more of these, plus others, would be a good acquisition for
Verisign to consider....  Again food for thought?  Perhaps!

P.S. I hope Danny Younger will enjoy his new employer...  >;)


>
>
> I understand the motivation for Verisign, they are facing drops in
> their new domain registration growth rates, and the transfer rate from
> Verisign to other registrars is practically a flood.  Acquisitions
> allow them to offset some of that, even if only temporarily.
>
> I think a hard and fast policy should be create whereby if an existing
> accredited registrar (or their parent company) already directly or
> indirectly controls X% of the registered domain names, they should be
> enjoined against further acquisitions of accredited registrars.
>
> Enforcement actions can include:
>             - Loss of accreditation (most severe)
>             - Penalty fees payable to ICANN on a per domain basis
>             until they come into compliance
>             - 90 day warning to get into compliance. (least severe)
>
> This would serve to bolster the principles of competition, which is
> one of the guiding principles in the Green Paper, White Paper, and in
> the actual DoC agreements.  It would serve to help avoid anything
> resembling an attempt to become, or regain, a monopoly level position,
> and ensure that there will be enough accredited registrars to provide
> competitive advantages to registrants.
>
> I'd be interested in hearing thoughts on this.
>
> I'm sure our alt-chair will tell us to take this to ga-sys, or is it
> ga-icann?  :)  Who can tell?
>
> --
> Best regards,
> William X Walsh <william@userfriendly.com>
> Userfriendly.com Domains
> The most advanced domain lookup tool on the net
> DNS Services from $1.65/mo
>
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Regards,

--
Jeffrey A. Williams
Spokesman for INEGroup - (Over 118k members strong!)
CEO/DIR. Internet Network Eng/SR. Java/CORBA Development Eng.
Information Network Eng. Group. INEG. INC.
E-Mail jwkckid1@ix.netcom.com
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Address: 5 East Kirkwood Blvd. Grapevine Texas 75208
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