[Governance] Acquisition of Afilias by Donuts

[parminder]

I understand all that this is being directed by a murky mafia behind the
scene, of which we got some sightings during the .org saga. This mafia
both consists of ex-CANNers and is in cahoots with existing people in
ICANN... This is why revolving doors is such a bad word in policy and
governance circles.... But wasnt the multistakeholderism version
practised by ICANN always a formalisation and white-washing of revolving
doors... parminder

On 20/11/20 4:01 AM, Ayden Férdeline via Governance wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> Just flagging this press release that says Afilias has been acquired
> by Donuts:
>
> https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/donuts-inc-to-acquire-afilias-inc-301177508.html
>
> This means that Donuts now owns over 450 generic top-level domains
> (out of a total of 1,200). The (continued) consolidation in the domain
> name industry is something that civil society might want to track. I
> am not sure if this sale is problematic from a competition perspective
> (though that is my gut reaction), but it is significant nonetheless.
>
> Donuts is owned by private equity firm Abry Partners, connected to
> former ICANN CEO Fadi Chehade.
>
> Afilias, which Donuts is now acquiring, is paid roughly $20 million a
> year by the Public Interest Registry to offer backend services. Late
> last year another Fadi Chehade-connected entity, Ethos Capital,
> attempted to acquire the Public Interest Registry.
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Ayden Férdeline
>
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