Love him or hate him you have to admit that Bob Parsons has bought attention to domain names to mainstream America like no one before him.
That’s why the story by the Wall Street Journal yesterday saying that Godaddy was going to place itself in an auction to sell the company, is one all domainers should follow.
Godaddy is not just a company in the domain space it is a company responsible for over 50% of all new domain registrations.
If Godaddy.com sells to a wall street investment firm or to a company like Network Solutions, there is more than a good chance that we have seen the last of the marketing Godaddy.com is famous for.
Super Bowl ads, car racing sponsorship and even Danica could all be causalities of a sale.
If Godaddy winds up being owned by a bunch of “suits”, like the major registrars that have come before, this may mean a lot less exposure for the company and the domain industry as well.
I mean when was the last time you saw a commercial for Network Solutions?
Register.com runs TV commercials from time to time but I can’t honestly say I could even tell you anything about the commercials.
That’s the difference between a company run by a guy like Parsons and a company run by a bunch of suits.
Here is another possible effect of the sale of Godaddy.
If the company is bought, the new owners might decide to go the way of Tucows and retain the cream of the crop of the expired domains for themselves.
Domainers hate this practice, but its perfectly legal and within the rights of the registrar.
Of course a sale, may also leave the door open for an existing or new registrar to make a move on Godaddy.com market share.
For me the sale comes at a pretty strange time for what seems to be a very small price.
$1 Billion dollars for a company which reportedly grossed $800M in 2009 seems downright cheap.
Just over 1x revenues.
However at least one site says, despite all the revenue, Godaddy.com makes no profit.
However maybe Godaddy is using its knowledge of domain auctions and use the same basic strategy to sell itself.
Put a Low number out there to attract bidders and let them bid the price up.
Its like putting a a million dollar domain up for auction with a $100K reserve.
You know a lower price will attract more interest, more bidders and hopefully a sales price well above reserve
Second the timing.
We all know we are in the middle of the worst recession of the last 70 years, so as we all know with our personal assets, this is not the best time to sell.
If you own a house you know you don’t put it up for sale now until you need the money. Otherwise wait.
Same here.
The stock market is shaky, money is tight and this is certainly not the time to get top dollar for anything.
We also know how successful the .co rollout has been adding additional revenue to Godaddy for 2010.
We also know that in 2012 the new extension will start rolling out, hundreds of them a year and with a greater than 50% market share of all new registrations no one is in a better situation to make money off of the new extensions that Godaddy.com.
All and all a strange time to sell and a low ball price.
I am confused, I thought a companies selling price is based off net profits multiply by 4-7 years worth and not gross revenues…in this case, they’d have to be making over $120 million a year in net profits just to be worth that cool billion.
Why is Bob selling? Does anyone know?
Attila,
Bob Parsons is 60 years old(looks in 45), Bob wants to enjoy his retirement with a smile and GoDaddy girls.
What will domainers do without a onslaught of objectifying ads? Give me a frickin break. Let’s talk about something that matters- price increases, interface changes, whether they’d be as dedicated to customer service- not whether or not a new company would keep the same stupid marketing technique. How does whether or not girls are bobbing around with their junk half out effect your domain buying process?
While giving the industry much needed mainstream exposure, I wonder how many take Godaddy’s soft porn marketing approach seriously?
As you pointed out, the timing, the low price offering, the economic and political climate right now, I suspect something bigger in the works.
A business is based on assets, reach, future earnings, contracts, # of customers etc. This is a good thing… If someone buys this for 1-billion plus? That is big news and gives creditibility to domain name business.
I am all for it… Parsons should take his money and enjoy life. If it were me, I would buy an Island and trade in premiums nder a different name. Man can’t leave domains behind no matter what…
@ Peters …really 60? Wow…
@ Pro …why talk about what every other blogger is already talking about (org price increases)? Its what separates TheDomains, DNW, Ron Jackson, Morgan Linton, Ricks posts, Epiks posts all apart…I am also guessing you never picked up a Playboy mag when you were a kid since you’re so appalled with half naked chicks promoting domains. Pricing factor does play a role, however REALITY CHECK, SEX SELLS and subliminal advertising works like a charm…its why they’ve got over 45 million domains under them.
less competition = price increases
Attila
Revenues have been pegged to be around $800 million but there are some that say Godaddy.com doesn’t make any profit:
http://247wallst.com/2010/09/11/godaddy-is-godawful/
However, since they are not a public company they do not have to report their earnings.
You have to remember that most domain registrars in general operate on a pretty small margin as most of the fee you pay your registrar goes to VeriSign.
Maybe Bob knows something we don’t, like the non-renewals of many worthless domains. All those “great marketing ideas” which Schilling so correctly called backwash are not generating the renewal income they once did.
IRegisteredThisDomainBecauseIThinkItsAGreatMarketingIdeaForABusinessIKnowNothingAbout.com
Only the registrar made money on these.
Think about how many great domains dropped this year, imagine the numbers on the backwash. I have committed to cutting my inventory in half, but buying higher quality domains. That does not help Godaddy. Yes they have 43MM domains under management, but how many are even worth the reg fee and will wash away when the owner gets sick of the renewal fee. The company is great, but it may actually be the peak for the mass volume of non-quality domain registration as we speak.
Pro
“objectifying ads? Give me a frickin break. Let’s talk about something that matters- price increases, interface changes, whether they’d be as dedicated to customer service- not whether or not a new company would keep the same stupid marketing technique. How does whether or not girls are bobbing around with their junk half out effect your domain buying process?””
Doesn’t effect my domain buying but you can’t argue with incredible success.
Godaddy came out of NOWHERE to become the largest domain registrar with 5x the numbers of registrations as the second closes competitor.
You may not like it, but there sexually charged ads and marketing work.
It draws attentions to domains and that’s good for all of us.
Now if the buyers of Godaddy go in a different direction (hey talking animals always work) but still does the Superbowl and its other marketing with memorable advertising, that’s great.
But if someone like Network Solutions buys Godaddy and stops marketing it or only markets it like Netsol markets itself, then its going to be bad for the industry.
Which makes me wonder how Fabulous is pulling a profit unless its just an registrar to manage their own portfolio and offer the service as an extra to help keep overhead down…Their new program YEXA seems promising though…
Bfitz
So far Verisign quartely state of the domain reports are not showing any loss in the total amount of domains registered nor any reduction in renewal rates.
Look at .co that 500K registrations that didn’t exist 2 months ago.
Now 500 more extensions are coming and Godaddy is positioned to get the most registrations off of these with the highest commissions from the registries.
If current management stayed as is, I think you will see Godaddy.com at 70 million domains under management before you would see a loss down to 25 million
or better yet… talking animals being ridden by scantily clad females.
I peg the earnings at around $50-70MM tops based on info I have been able to get from various sources. A billion would be a 20 x 1 ratio, which is a little too high. 10-13 x would be more like it, so $500MM to 700MM still a nice payday.
(Pure speculation and drivel BTW!!!)
Sell when the ducks are quacking..
Sell when you can – not when you have to..
Sell when it looks rosiest (always at the top)…
Parsons knows that the $1 BN has ALREADY PRICED in future expected earnings
Most of the exponential growth is LONG GONE (bar the esoteric extns that only domainers schase over)
Face it, domain reg is a low margin business – it’s the upselling of hosting etc & auctions that make any real money
Classic give em the razor for free, sell the blades business model..
It’s also a MATURE INDUSTRY (yes it is)
With respect to certain bloggers…I would think Parsons knows a thing or two about business (REAL business, near $1 BN revs, that employs ~ 2000 employees), pricing & time to sell….than certain bloggers & domain sellers (1 man & his dog) who will probably still be trying to flog their near 100,000 domains off at the time of their deathbed (they ain’t getting younger)..
I talked with GoDaddy a couple weeks ago and got some of their financials for the past 7 years.
Last year the company had GAAP revenue of $610M, not the $750-$800 in the story (they had gross sales of about $750 last year, which is probably what the sources were referring to).
The company refused to say if it was profitable, but does expect operating cash flow of $140M-$150M this year. As a rapidly growing company it will struggle to be GAAP profitable given the deferred revenue.
With regards to the story you link to saying they aren’t profitable, that was based on numbers from several years ago. Again, I don’t know if they’re GAAP profitable right now, through.
Although they’re probably an ideal target for a private equity company, don’t be surprised to see someone like Intuit make a play for them. Intuit bought one of Parson’s earlier companies, and the small biz cross selling opportunities are immense.
@ Chip
I think your figures are in the ballpark.
Mostly everyone here seems to think $1 BN is chump change & grows from trees…
In the final analysis, this is basically a simple business comprising:
-domain reg (low margins)
-webhosting/ecommerce services (hi margin)
It aint rocket science
the GoDaddy’s selling is just a rumor, now, and $1 billion is only the auction’s starting price, so, we must wait to know…
1. IF GoDaddy really IS on sale, and…
2. WHAT will be its FINAL “price”
.
Bob Parsons is(was) a Serial Entrepreneur. What more does he have to prove with his domain Registrar adventure? He sunk ??$50 million?? from previous adventures into it to jump start it. Many people would not have taken that risk. Bob was at the right place at the right time with enough cash to launch the ship. It floats, it is the same cruise year after year, now sell it.
Enter the clever advisers. “Sell it?” “Auction it?” What IF (a big IF) that is a smoke-screen ?
What IF the sale is to a group that recognizes there is a Hidden Asset in the Registrar, Customer Apathy. What IF they finance their purchase simply by doing a Surprise Price Increase, knowing customers will pay and not move?
Some might claim…”That is a very smart business decision…”
What IF Verisign seizes the opportunity to drive that deal and ratchet .COM up to the .CO retail pricing levels ? $30
What IF .COM and .CO blur into a Premium Trademark Name Space ?…with
some more price increases to sweeten the deals… $50 ? $100 ?
What IF the entire notion of Top Level Domains is tossed and the flat
name-space approach from Microsoft becomes the norm ? with the Premium
Trademark Name Space “Community” paying to…”make it so”…
Bob Parsons has recently purchased Cher’s island paradise in Hawaii. He
should be able to enjoy all the “What IFs” and the beach and “the girls”.
*
“If Godaddy.com sells to a wall street investment firm or to a company like Network Solutions, there is more than a good chance that we have seen the last of the marketing Godaddy.com is famous for.
Super Bowl ads, car racing sponsorship and even Danica could all be causalities of a sale.”
And that’s a bad thing????
*
MS.
Yes
Unless like I said above the go with another marketing program as memorable with as much saturation.
However I have never seen another company in the domain space even try to make a run at a decedent as campaign
Personally I like to see domain names on the Super Bowl
“Personally I like to see domain names on the Super Bowl”
Stay tuned…you will likely see…
http://Google
http://Yahoo
http://FaceBook
http://Twitter
…the game is changing…
@MHB
Good stats, but that is half the story. A long time ago I gave my first investor a budget showing we were going to make $1.2MM the first year. He gave me a deposit slip and told me to take the budget to the bank and try and deposit it. Then he excused himself and told me to call him in a year when I had done it. I am not saying they won’t grow registrations, I am saying it takes more than that. I just ran the numbers and it will take 3,000,000 new registrations just for Godaddy to offset impending health care costs being placed on employers shoulders. Here are some other facts:
Unemployment will rise. If we add 60,000 jobs a month for a year, one million more people will be unemployed in 12 months. We need to add 300,000 jobs a month, every month, until the end of 2013 to get unemployment back to 6%.
Interest rates will rise in order to not default on current Tbonds coming due.
Regulations and taxes are increasing on employers.
These are facts and what it means that if you are Bob P, or any business owner with a payroll, there is uncertainty in the future. I am not saying they would fail or anything close. I am saying the hay-day is over and the next 20 million new registrations will not produce the profits the last 20 million did.
The company is great, external factors are real. Godaddy is not a domainer or publisher with a handful of employees. They are real company with thousands of employees and millions in infrastructure. Maybe Bob is just saying “been there, done that.” Maybe he sees what it will take to keep profits where they have been and is saying, “life is too short, let someone else do it for the good of the employees.” Some of us remember that first $50 check from Google and how excited we were. Now doing less than that a day is a disappointment. It is all relative…
I am long on domains, selling stocks to buy some, but I would not bet against Bob Parsons. Business owners have different investment goals than the type of institution which will buy Godaddy.
Thanks for the stats from Verisign.
“or better yet… talking animals being ridden by scantily clad females”
or better yet… scantily clad females being ridden talking like animals.
To all people concerned with the changes. I understand the worry about the price changes and the marketing changes that will result from a takeover of godaddy.
But I ask what of the employees? we didn’t receive any warning/notice of this, and I had to hear about it on the news Saturday Morning. It’s been totally business as usual there with no mention of selling. Even internal press releases about new advancements/services we’re developing as if nothing will change. This is a shock. If we’re taken over by another company, who’s to say we won’t all be terminated? GoDaddy employes 100% american employees. 0 outsourced jobs. Will we go the way of the majority of telephone support and be outsourced to asia and the middle east?
GoDaddy had a cushion of $12,000/day in revenue in 2006: http://money.cnn.com/magazines/business2/business2_archive/2006/12/01/8394968
so maybe since that is gone – after Google changed its algorithm – since Go Daddy and its boiler-room sales tactics incur more liability than profit by upselling unnecessary products which don’t have the tech support to make them work; and since Registrars might start having to be accountable for how they act (see: http://krebsonsecurity.com/2010/08/white-house-calls-meeting-on-rogue-online-pharmacies ), Bob doesn’t see easy profit; just work. So he wants out – it’s understandable. GoDaddy had some good things going for it, but failed in its overaggresive sales department by burning many customers. Besides, it’s a huge host of malware sites – not like eNom, which is #1. Maybe the government wants to address Registrars complete lack of discrimination in supplying a haven for criminals. Plus, GoDaddy has a big class action against it by employees claiming payment fraud and tax fraud in overtime by withholding earned bonuses.
He’s set to bail, is all I can conclude! Plus, you can’t take it with you!
On the flip side, you could say this is as far as GoDaddy can go as a private firm. It needs a public company to overhaul it.
I think like all multi-millionaires, after many years of the same thing day after day, Parsons has reached his burn out point, and probably just wants to cash out and find something new and exciting to do with his life. How much further can he take GoDaddy, especially with the economy the way it is?
$1 Billion is still a big number and enough cash to keep him rolling happily for the rest of his life. And I say odds are like some pointed out already, he’ll probably end up with several Billion if enough bidders come to the table.
There’s a lot of acquisitions happening right now. Google has acquired 25 companies in the past 24 months. Picking up GoDaddy would be small change out of their war chest and I’m sure they’ll be one of the interested parties.
anonymousemployee
You obviously make a great point.
If the company is bought by an overseas company or another registrar that already has a huge headquarters and a lot of their own employees, then there is reason to be very nervous.
Hope things work out for you.
But Bfitz makes an excellent point.
Godaddy has a huge staff and the cost for it is about to rise dramatically, because of national health care
The uncertainty of this industry, it’s so exhilarating I am about to piss myself.
Behemoths will rear their ugly heads for one last gasp before they are slain and replaced by newer more technologically advanced models. No one should take for granted that they will be here tomorrow (I mean that both literally and figuratively).
The internet is evolving and seems like some new Algorithm or model is introduced weekly. The change is only certain to escalate, and it’s sure to leave casualties in it’s wake as well as create undreamed of opportunities for those savvy enough to recognize the opportunities. Bob is smart enough to bow out gracefully.
As .COM and .CO blur into one…some people would claim “The Smart Money is on the Deloitte 100”.[1]
GoDaddy did not make the list. Bob Parsons still has a chance to join that elite club. Ray Kroc did not start McDonalds until he was 52 and in poor health.
[1] http://www.deloitte.com/be/brand-list
Accenture Accor Adidas Adobe
Amazon.com American Express AOL Apple
Armani Audi AXA Banana Republic
Barbie Blackberry BMW Burberry
Canon Carrefour Cartier Caterpillar
Chanel Cisco Citi CNN
Coca-Cola Danone Dell DHL
Disney Dolce&Gabbana eBay Exxon
Facebook Fedex Ferrari Ford
GAP General Electric Google Gucci
Harley-Davidson Hewlett-Packard Hilton Honda
HSBC IBM Ikea Intel
Jack Daniel’s JP Morgan Kodak Lancôme
L’Oréal Marlboro MasterCard McDonald’s
Mercedes-Benz Microsoft MTV Nestlé
Nike Nintendo Nivea Nokia
Pampers Panasonic Pedigree Pepsi
Pfizer Philips Pizza Hut Playboy
Porsche Prada Red Bull Reebok
Rolex Samsung Sanyo SAP
Shell Sheraton Siemens Sky
Smirnoff Sony Starbucks Coffee Tiffany & Co.
TNT Toshiba Total Toyota
UBS Unilever UPS Virgin
Visa Volkswagen Xerox Yahoo!
Still digesting the news.Hopefully someone with low cost infrastructure already in place takes over.A lot of domainers (me included) would have to find another hobby…if you end up having to pay 30usd or more for a domain.Cost of actual development is really not cheap.
Is Bob Parsons Worth $6.8 billion?
“For the price of one Mark Hurd, you could have pooled your spending and purchased not just a Harley, but all of Harley-Davidson.”
Is Mark Hurd Worth $6.8 billion?
http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2010/09/07/is-mark-hurd-worth-68-billion/?mod=yahoo_hs
“the hiring of H-P’s former top boss. They pushed Oracle shares up 5.76%, on a day when the overall market was down about 1%.
The increase is an astounding one, given Oracle’s size. It already had a market capitalization of around $115.2 billion. If you believe that the stock move was directly tied to Hurd, that means his hiring was worth about $6.76 billion overall.”
don’t forget that we are just talking about unconfirmed RUMORS
These “rumors” have been out for days and no one at Godaddy.com has said they are wrong.
When the Wall Street Journal says a well know firm has been hired to find a buyer for you and your not for sale , you certainly would contact the Journal and tell them the story is untrue.
That has not happened here
Will there be a market for domains under new “brand” TLDs ?
http://Hugh.Hefner.Playboy
http://PLAYBOY – Market Cap – $170M
http://DELL – Market Cap – $24B
http://APPLE – Market Cap – $241B
http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2010/09/02/does-hugh-hefner-see-something-you-cant.aspx
Hill: There was some noise about this a few months ago. Buy, sell or hold the likelihood that Dell (Nasdaq: DELL) will go private.
Greer: I will say “hold,” because I really don’t know the answer to that one.
Hill: As a general rule of thumb, what do you make of those situations, as an investor, as an entrepreneur, when you see a company like Dell, where there are rumors that — and we have seen this with Playboy (NYSE: PLA) as well, Hugh Hefner’s move to take the company private. Do you generally view that as a positive thing? Or do you generally view that as, “A company’s in trouble?”
Greer: Management wanting to own the equity, I would always view as a positive. What are they seeing, what is management seeing, that the other investors aren’t seeing?
“These rumors have been out for days and no one at Godaddy.com has said they are wrong.”
why should they do it?
this news (or rumor) equals a multi million$ free advertising for GoDaddy 🙂
.
also… this leak of “rumors” is the best way to know if someone could be interested to buy the company (and at what price) without actually admit that their company is on sale… 🙂
“Will there be a market for domains under new “brand” TLDs ?”
my opinion is… no, nothing, zero, nada
Will there be a market for domains under new “brand” TLDs ?
http://Hugh.Hefner.Playboy
http://Hugh.Hefner.FaceBook
http://Hugh.Hefner.Twitter
http://007.Playboy
http://James.Bond.Playboy
http://Domain.Playboy
http://LA.Playboy
http://Denver.Playboy
I believe that those guys with the suit, once they get their hands on Godaddy, they’d naturally undress to a bathing suit instead; because, they are damn well aware what makes Godaddy successful, and will not jeopardize all that… Howeverstill, they’ll make enough changes to overcome the hidden reasons that made Parson wanna sell Godaddy, which I’m sure they’re not retirement issues.
From here, do not panic guys… You might just find Danica’s photos allover the winning registrar’s main page…
I spoke with my Godaddy account manager yesterday and he would neither confirm, nor deny the rumors, he was not at liberty to comment about the situation. That is probably standard protocol in a situation like this. The WSJ is kind of the mouthpiece of the financial world and I doubt that they would start a rumor mill. Unless they had credible information they would not publish news like that as they have too much to loose by disseminating rumors or false information.
“account manager”
either it true or false, I doubt there are more than very few GoDaddy’s TOP managers that know it
.
Bob Parsons and I served in the same unit in Vietnam in the late 60’s, I don’t know him well but his company is in my hometown of Scottsdale, AZ and I have over a hundred domains registered with GD. He is not the most loved man in town I can tell you that, not because of his sleezy commercials either. I hope he does sell it to a bunch of “suits” he could use a billion dollars cause when he wakes up the day after the sale he will still just be a rich jerk.
@Dick
First, thank you for your service.
I too live in Scottsdale and know many current and former Godaddy employees. All are happy. I am sure some are not, but those are the percentages when you employee many people. Should the company sell, I doubt the new owners will treat the employees as well as Bob has, if they don’t outsource them. And that is the real story on the individuals and local economy. Domain prices rising? Give me a break, it will only push out the bottom feeders and their backwash. Actually, if prices had been higher I would have saved money in the early days because I would not have bought so much junk while learning. $18 would have given me pause to say, “what can I really do with this domain?”
very often, when a company is sold, the buyer “restructures” it … that nearly always mean lay off hundreds employees… 😐
Anyone have a GoDaddy Code we can use to make the purchase? The best I can find is DOWNFORCE which only knocks off $100MM to bring it to $900MM. Also privacy doesn’t seem to be an option. Anyone?
UPDATE
Fool.com weights in with possible buyers:
http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2010/09/13/whos-hot-for-godaddy.aspx
buyers… but the sale offer isn’t confirmed… everybody can try to guess about the buyer… Google… Microsoft… Apple… etc.
@Investment
try the GIRLS88 code… if still active you can win Danica… 🙂
.
@BFitz:
I too bought a lot of junk domains during the “learning process”. Still…my current portfolio would be tough to carry @ 30 to 50 bucks a domain. Am I to develop ALL of them? Or even say…25% of them? C’mon! People who own valuable land often sat on it for decades until people with a better sense of what it should be came along.(Las Vegas Strip)(South Beach)
Google would have a hard time getting government approval to buy Godaddy. Controlling 80% of search and 50% of url sales equals monopoly.
IF one registers for 10 years, does that lock in the cost for 10 years ?
Where does the money go during that 10 year period ?
…to the Registrar ? to the Registry ?
What happens when the new .COM servers are deployed ? (better security, stability, redundancy…blah blah blah)
Does your 10 year registration in the legacy IPv4 .COM servers transfer ?
“equals monopoly”
Google already IS a Monopoly
.
Jim
“IF one registers for 10 years, does that lock in the cost for 10 years ?
Of course its prepaid
“Where does the money go during that 10 year period ?”
The registrar collects the money, it has to pay Verisign $7.34 for each year of renewal, ICANN gets $.18 per year, the rest the registrar keeps.
So Verisign gets $73.45m ICANN get $1.80 and the registrar keep the remainder.
…to the Registrar ? to the Registry ?
“What happens when the new .COM servers are deployed ? (better security, stability, redundancy…blah blah blah)”
Nothing
“IF one registers for 10 years, does that lock in the cost for 10 years ?”
yes, it could be a marketing trick to sell more long term domains before the GoDaddy buyer will increase the domains prices
“$1 Billion dollars for a company which reportedly grossed $800M in 2009 seems downright cheap.”
I agree, but what was the .net income? (Pun intended)
We went from having over 350 domains with GD to only having about 11 now. There were many good things about GD, but a number of bad ones as well. The things that drove me away the most were the annoying upselling and crude commercials. Well of course they were affective: Most of the country is crude and the rest only too willing to discuss how crude the others are. But I think it’s cheap publicity and a different spin would have more longevity, if not the same initial impact.
Google is already a registrar and it would make a good fit. I think the marketing would change, but we would still see some commercials. Hmmm, is Gomain.com, gDomain.com and GoodDaddy.com registered…? Well of course they are…!!!
“The registrar collects the money, it has to pay Verisign $7.34 for each year of renewal, ICANN gets $.18 per year, the rest the registrar keeps.”
WHEN does the Registrar pay ? immediately ? year-by-year ?
Does the Registrar have a Liability on their books to support the customer for 10 years ?
What happens if Microsoft decides to charge for their PNRP domain system ?
What happens if countries (currently meeting in the .EU) decide to charge for .COM domains ?
http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/
Jim
Typically a registrar will have a prepaid amount on account at both VeriSign and ICANN, amounts are settled daily, meaning if the registrar has no credit left no registrations or renewals will occur.
So to answer your question daily for most, monthly for everyone
I don’t know how the registrars treat the amounts.
.Eu has no jurisdiction to charge for .com’s.
.com’s are managed by contract given by ICANN to Verisign
“.com’s are managed by contract given by ICANN to Verisign”
And, as one of the founders of ICANN, Michael Roberts, has recently said:
“ICANN has only self-invented legitimacy”
Michael Roberts – Sep 12, 2010 2:12 PM PDT
http://www.circleid.com
“self-invented”… in other words, it is all made up as they go along.
As for other countries or platforms charging for .COM, anyone that sits between a large base of consumers and the DNS database could in theory charge a toll.
One easy way to do that is to charge the Registrars, the way ICANN does.
All of this brings up other topics, such as “Who really owns a .COM domain?”
With S.C.U.B.A DNS that is very clear. You can hold the box in your hand with the domain credentials burned into the flash memory. All of the boxes connect
and form “the Registry”. The .NET is the Registry.