The fallout continues from the announcement that a private equity company will be acquiring PIR and the .org registry it operates for a reported (but yet to be independently confirmed) sale price of $1.135 billion. There have been a number of organizations, businesses, news publications, and people that have called foul in the wake of this deal announcement.
This afternoon, ICA General Counsel Zak Muscovitch retweeted US Senator Ron Wyden (Oregon), who expressed his concerns about the .org acquisition:
This is extremely concerning. I’m looking into how this sale happened, what can be done, and what it will mean for non-profits and users. https://t.co/RrnlDt9F3J
— Ron Wyden (@RonWyden) December 3, 2019
In his tweet, Senator Wyden linked to a Mashable article discussing the acquisition and ICANN’s declaration that the organization is “powerless” to do anything about the pending deal. It remains to be seen if there is anything that any organization or governmental body can do, so it will be interesting to see if any US government agency or department investigates and/or takes action.
I have not seen other elected officials comment on the pending deal yet, but I would not be surprised if that happens. It doesn’t seem like ICANN really cared much about all of the comments opposing the lifting of price caps for .org, but perhaps elected officials will care if they hear from their constituents.
thats one way to generate leads for campaign contributions from Abry Partners
IKR
At least someone at the US Government level is now looking into this heist!
Till they get a $$$ contribution perhaps…
Said it before and I’ll say it again: none of this including price caps could ever have happened under US oversight, DESPITE all the corruption we certainly have here.
And no, it’s not “shrewd” of those doing it. You have to be nothing less than a sociopath to take advantage and go through with it. That means everyone associated with the purchase at the buyer’s end who approves is a sociopath, not a “shrewd” business person.
That transaction needs a thorough review. It cannot be allowed to just go through in the dark of night.
Ron Wyden was also very critical about the revolving door between ICANN and companies in the domain industry. It was a number of years back, but he was strongly advocating for cooling off periods for ICANN executives back then Rightly so. Wonder if he knows what’s happened since then…
https://www.wyden.senate.gov/news/press-releases/wyden-calls-for-ethics-rules-to-prevent-revolving-door-for-internet-domain-name-regulators