[article] Internet world despairs as non-profit .org sold for $$$$ to private equity firm, price caps axed

[Sam Lanfranco]

	This is just a brief comment about the concern I raised earlier when I
wrote “The history of who did what and who knew what when, as the
decision was made to remove the price cap, and what followed, is yet to be
known.”  

	I have been involved in doing analysis and due diligence for business
deals of a much smaller magnitude (10’s of millions of dollars) where the
deep pocketed investor teams were looking at the purchase of ongoing
enterprises. Based on that experience I am surprised that this PIR buyout
deal could have been put in place as quickly as it appears if the idea was
germinated after the price cap was removed.  

	I have to join Amr in saying I am not sure what we should be asking of
ICANN at the moment. We should convey that we are not happy with the turn
of events, and express concern that this followed quickly on the removal of
the price cap. But, as Amr points out, ICANN agreeing to some of the asks
would set a bad precedent for how gTLD registry agreements are handled.  

	More information? Certainly. This is a big enough story that some
resourceful journalist will pull it together at some point, and I fear that
the integrity of ISOC, ICANN and others might not look good.  

	What else to do? As we see how this rolls out, maybe we should seek a
repeat of the original .org experience and press for a similar new gTLD,
say one attached to social business since that seems to be the direction
the non-profit and community organization sectors are being pushed at the
moment, or a gTLD based on similar non-commercial interests. 

	Sam L.  
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