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ICANN could block Donuts from buying Afilias
In what appears to be an almost unprecedented move, ICANN is to review Donuts’ proposed acquisition of rival Afilias at the highest level, raising a question mark over the industry mega-merger.
The org’s board of directors will meet Thursday to consider, among other things, “Afilias Change of Control Approval Request”.
It’s highly unusual for a change of control to be discussed at such a high level.
Every registry contract contains clauses requiring ICANN’s consent before a registry switches owners, and it has approved hundreds over the last decade. But the process is usually handled by legal staff, without board involvement.
The only time, to my memory, that the board has got involved was when it withheld consent from .org manager Public Interest Registry earlier this year.
It’s not entirely clear why Afilias has been singled out for special treatment.
It’s probably not due to its status as a legacy gTLD registry operator because of .info — when GoDaddy bought .biz operator Neustar’s registry business earlier this year, there was no such board review.
In addition, the .info contract’s change of control provisions are very similar to those in the standard new gTLD contract.
Could it be due to Donuts executives former ties to ICANN and the perception of a conflict of interest? Again, it seems unlikely.
While Donuts CEO Akram Atallah is former president of ICANN’s Global Domains Division, former ICANN CEO Fadi Chehadé is no longer involved with Donuts owner Abry Partners, having jumped to erstwhile PIR bidder Ethos Capital this July.
Are there competition concerns? It’s a possibility.
Afilias holds the contracts for 24 gTLDs new and legacy, but supports a couple hundred more, while Donuts is contracted for over 240.
But between them, they have barely 10 million domains under management. Donuts isn’t even the market leader in terms of new gTLD registrations.
And ICANN avoids making competition pronouncements like the plague, preferring instead to refer to national competition regulators.
Could ICANN’s interest have been perked by the fact that Afilias is the back-end provider for .org’s 10 million domains, and the proposed Donuts deal comes hot on the heels of the failed PIR acquisition? Again, it’s a possibility.
But none of the dangers ICANN identified in the .org deal — such as pricing, freedom of speech, and the change from a non-profit to for-profit corporate structure — appear to apply here.
There could be technical concerns. Atallah told DI a couple weeks ago that the plan was to ultimately migrate its managed TLDs to its Amazon cloud-based registry.
But moving its clients’ TLDs to a new back-end infrastructure would require their consent — it would be up to PIR and its overlords at the Internet Society to agree to moving .org to the cloud.
I think it’s likely that a combination of all the above factors, and maybe others, are what’s driving the Afilias acquisition to the ICANN boardroom. It will be interesting to see what the board decrees.
Very interesting. Thanks for covering this.
Thanks Kevin
Interesting to know what will happen next. Afilias’ acquisition by Donuts is not a surprise. Both companies are purely financial entities, not bringing the slightest added value to the market. Their destiny is to be purchased by a bigger one, and it I guess it will happen soon to Donuts too.