The ICANNblog

VeriSign Acquires .Name.

October 6th, 2008

by Chuck Kisselburg
ICANNWiki.org

In recent days we learned that the London-based registry for .Name has been acquired by VeriSign.

To me this is a rather landmark move for a couple of reasons.

First of all, there are not that many TLDs in the market to begin with.

Secondly, from what I have witnessed, for TLDs to switch hands, or operators, it has typically been done through ICANN going through the RFP process to see who should be awarded the next contract to take over operation of the TLD.  .ORG is a classic example of this, with it now being under the operation of the Public Interest Registry.  Other examples are a handful of ccTLDs, such as .TV.

What we are seeing with the .Name acquisition is simply a business acquisition, plain and simple.  This is the same as businesses in other industries acquiring other businesses.  We see this everyday.

What makes this a landmark move for me is I did not hear of a formal process through ICANN for ICANN’s approval, thus awarding of this move.  Instead, it was just a simple business acquisition.  We will soon see new gTLDs emerge on the Internet in late 2009 or 2010.  I can see TLDs/registries being born and developed with companies wishing to acquire registries just as businesses today seek acquisitions of other companies.  Will there be a few top registries looking to purchase only those emerging TLDs that do well?  Will TLDs emerge solely for the purpose of executing a possible exit strategy a couple of years down the road?  As the number of registries go from a few to many, will we eventually see them then go back to a few?

Do I think this is a good move?  Yes and here is why.  First of all we are at the threshold of seeing the emergence of many TLDs.  I believe someone mentioned a “possible” number being 18,700 applications, when you include large corporations that would submit TLDs for purposes of brand protection, such as .IBM, .Microsoft, .Exxon-Mobile, to name a few.  Aside from the large corporate, brand-protection initiatives, there will be the entrepreneurial startups that will come up with the full gamut of ideas; much like what we saw in the late ‘90s when the dotcom boom was getting started.  Out of the MANY ideas that emerged then, there were still a lot of great ideas then.  As mentioned, these TLDs will all be a startup of some sort.  The fees associated with becoming a full fledged registry is far more than what simple boot strapping allows.  Funds will need to be secured from outside sources.  Investors, whether angel investors or venture capitalists will need to come together to help these new TLDs come to fruition.  Where there is outside investment there will more often then not be the need to understand the new organization’s exit strategy.

So did the VeriSign acquisition of .Name lay the foundation for how future acquisitions can occur?  I think so.  There is no doubt this is a safe move; one registry being acquired by another registry.  What can we, as an industry, learn from the full integration from such an acquisition?  How can the industry apply what was learned from this acquisition when, in the future, a registry is acquired by a corporation that is not a registry, does not even play within this industry, but wishes to diversify its portfolio?  What implications will such acquisitions have on the Internet?

So let’s watch and analyze the lifecycle of this acquisition to understand what the future holds!

Entry Filed under: Site News, TLDs, Business Strategy, Community, ICANN Community, Registry