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.org sale officially dead

Kevin Murphy, May 13, 2020, 14:40:37 (UTC), Domain Registries

Public Interest Registry has formally announced that its proposed $1.13 billion acquisition by Ethos Capital is dead.

The company told ICANN yesterday that it is withdrawing its request for a change of control under its .org contract and that it “will not be pursuing an ICANN Request for Reconsideration or taking any other action to try to revive the Transaction”.

In a statement, CEO Jon Nevett said that PIR is no longer for sale to any other party. It will remain under the Internet Society’s control.

He also pointed out that it’s not within ICANN’s power to arbitrarily transfer .org to another registry, as some critics have called for.

“Such a transfer by ICANN is a contractual impossibility under our registry agreement,” he wrote.

ICANN rejected the change of control request after deciding it was not in the public interest for .org to pass into for-profit hands.

Following the decision, ISOC had indicated that PIR was no longer for sale.



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Comments (3)

  1. Jack says:

    .org now needs a new steward.

    PIR doesn’t care at all about .org registrants and was willing to throw all non profits under the bus.

    PIR wanted all non profits to be eaten alive by private equity sharks !

    .org will be much better in other hands.

  2. John says:

    So Jon Nevett is telling everyone “PIR is no longer for sale to any other party”

    If that was the case – why did Jon Nevett allow this proposed sale to occur in the first place?

    Because of his close association with both Fadi Chehadé & Erik Brooks?

    Thus Ethos Capital is the only entity in the world that is allowed to acquire PIR? Seems strange……

  3. DomainBoss says:

    It is ICANN’s moral and ethical duty to transfer the control of .ORG registry away from disgraced ISOC/PIR combo to another true non-profit that really cares about public interest.
    Sooner it happens the better for public.

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