[governance] 14 Jan. 2020 The Register article on .ORG sale

[Ayden Férdeline]

The Register offers an analysis today on new documents released by the Internet Society pertaining to the sale of the Public Interest Registry to Ethos Capital:

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/01/14/icann_org_redacted/

"Adding to the sense that the entire transaction resulted from insider knowledge and careful manipulation, the documents reveals that yet another former ICANN executive – its former head of compliance – is also involved in the deal.

... As we discussed in an earlier article, it looks as though ISOC purposefully positioned PIR for sale a year prior to the Ethos Capital offer. ISOC has repeatedly avoided saying whether it has been trying to sell the registry for some time, even though it has cautiously admitted that it has received prior offers. It has not explained why it pulled an additional $30m out of PIR in 2018, removing almost all of its assets.

In addition, ICANN claimed in its posting – which, unusually, took place on a Saturday – that it only received the information from PIR/ISOC/Ethos Capital on 10 January. But on January 8, PIR informed us that it has already sent the information.

While a two-day discrepancy may seem unimportant in the larger scheme of things, it is just one more sign that all the organizations in questions are coordinating with one another while failing to admit or acknowledge the extent of their communications."

Ayden Férdeline
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