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Epik reveals who is running the company
Kevin Murphy,
February 5, 2024, 02:17:36 (UTC),
Domain Registrars
Epik has named the three people it says are running the company following the change of control last June.
They are: JM Spear (identified as president) Jon Garrison (treasurer) and Bryce Myrvang (secretary), according to a recently published page on the company’s web site, which also names Registered Agents Inc as the parent company.
The three men hold the same positions at Registered Agents, according to that company’s web site.
The publishing of the new officers web page follows shortly after ICANN said it would ask Epik to publish such a page last week.
It seems the press release announcing the “acquisition” of Epik by Registered Agents I blogged about yesterday pre-dates ICANN’s approval of the new Epik LLC taking over the registrar accreditation of the old Epik Inc, which followed months of vetting.
So now we know who owns and runs the new Epik, which has committed to regain the trust of customers following a financial scandal and abandon its old devotion to a hard-line “free speech” stance, at least on paper.
The fact that Registered Agents specializes in company formations makes its acquisition of a registrar somewhat plausible, but the fact that its job is often to act as a proxy for its clients’ true beneficiaries means speculation about Epik’s ownership is unlikely to relent immediately.
I guess they may have been able to get Epik at a good fire sale price that *may possibly* have made it worth it despite the attrition and reputational baggage.
I’m definitely done with them, however.
I was never one of the “controversial” customers, but I did have some domains that hateful censorship-loving “neoliberal” (i.e., as anti-liberal as it gets) bigots would have a problem with.
And I kind of get the impression the new “owners” may be part of that world more or less.
Not long ago, in good faith ready to invest a little new confidence in the new entity, I tried to register a domain and transfer a domain in. But all transactions were simply and mysteriously rejected. There may have been some more of that too, would have to check my records. To my recollection the same may have also happened with a renewal. In other words, okay I think I get the message, you don’t want the business despite your hemorrhaging revenue and numbers.
Since I’ve been around a long time now, it was ever so suspiciously (or blatantly) like “something was up with that.” And frankly, I’m usually right, almost absurdly so.
I get the impression they are now just another member of the “evil empire” of hateful bigots serving rapacious influential idiot psychopaths working on controlling the world. (Pro tip: they will all fail, even when it looks like they won. Trust me, I know.)
It’s a shame really. All because of the mistake of mixing escrow funds with operation funds, a virtual guarantee of something going very wrong. A very costly mistake.
Yeah no I’m still getting the few domains I have left with them out. The company is folding due to financial mismanagement and they decide to let a 12 year old run their social media and open themselves up to lawsuits by accusing random domain owners of hosting kiddie porn as a prelude to announce they’re under new management?!
It’s pretty obvious someone who doesn’t want to be named bought the sinking ship for pennies on the dollar and will be gutting it for its remaining value before folding the company entirely.
Fellow former epik customers: you will NEVER see any of that money or get those stolen domains back, if you have any domains left with them its time to run fast.