<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
</head>
<body text="#000000" bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
<p><font face="Verdana">a forward, for those perhaps not following
what others are talking about this sale....</font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana">There is no reason for IGC to soft-paddle
this institutional corruption... Even small non profits cant
sell their petty assets without proper bids and/or auction </font>...</p>
<p>parminder <br>
</p>
<div class="moz-forward-container"><br>
<br>
-------- Forwarded Message --------
<table class="moz-email-headers-table" cellspacing="0"
cellpadding="0" border="0">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th valign="BASELINE" nowrap="nowrap" align="RIGHT">Subject:
</th>
<td>[Internet Policy] [article] The .Org Fire Sale: How it
sold for less than half its valuation</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="BASELINE" nowrap="nowrap" align="RIGHT">Date: </th>
<td>Wed, 04 Dec 2019 13:22:43 +0000</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="BASELINE" nowrap="nowrap" align="RIGHT">From: </th>
<td>Ayden Férdeline via InternetPolicy
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:internetpolicy@elists.isoc.org"><internetpolicy@elists.isoc.org></a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="BASELINE" nowrap="nowrap" align="RIGHT">Reply-To:
</th>
<td>Ayden Férdeline <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:ferdeline@protonmail.com"><ferdeline@protonmail.com></a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="BASELINE" nowrap="nowrap" align="RIGHT">To: </th>
<td>ISOC INTERNETPOLICY
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:internetpolicy@elists.isoc.org"><internetpolicy@elists.isoc.org></a></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<br>
<br>
Sam Klein has published a new article that summarises well many of
the unanswered questions and concerns that ISOC members have about
the sale of PIR:<br>
<br>
<div><a
href="http://blogs.harvard.edu/sj/2019/12/02/the-dot-org-fire-sale-sold-for-half-its-valuation/"
moz-do-not-send="true">http://blogs.harvard.edu/sj/2019/12/02/the-dot-org-fire-sale-sold-for-half-its-valuation/</a><br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<ul>
<li>No competitive bid. (<i>ISOC suggests that they had at
least two
bids. But the first public mention of bids is in the minutes
of their
10/28 board meeting, and by 10/29 Sullivan had entered into
exclusive
talks with Ethos.</i>)<br>
</li>
<li>No public market / sale analysis. (<i>This makes it hard to
determine whether the parties involved built in incentives
to close a
deal quickly, even if it was well under the market rate for
the
registry. At least one independent assessment put the value
closer to
$4B</i>)<br>
</li>
<li>No public story of how the deal came together. (<i>The
outline:
Nevett is approached by Ethos for the first time in
September, and has a complete offer to put before the ISOC
board by late October, developed
in private.</i>)<br>
</li>
<li>No discussion of alternatives to financing an endowment. (<i>National
bond funds and other options have been suggested that could
have
allowed ISOC to diversify its investments without selling
PIR outright.</i>)<br>
</li>
<li>Analyses based on an assumption of no future growth. (<i>PIR’s
operating income has grown 20% each of the past two years,
without
raising prices; the new owner plans to raise prices
continuously if
steadily.</i>)<br>
</li>
<li>No assessment of future impact or development of the
registry. (<i>Many questions about pricing, censorship, and
squatting bear addressing,
both for Ethos and for whoever it sells the registry to in
the future.
An assumption that no one would be hurt if prices were
raised to $60/yr
bears addressing in detail.</i>)<br>
</li>
</ul>
<div><br>
</div>
</div>
</body>
</html>