Re[2]: [ga] Registrar acquisition and merger policy

["William X. Walsh" <william@userfriendly.com>]

Hello Harald,

Thursday, June 28, 2001, 12:45:11 AM, Harald Tveit Alvestrand wrote:
> When you say "loss of accreditation", I take it you mean that the acquiring
> company as well as the acquired company would lose accreditation?
> Otherwise, it won't hurt at all...

Yes, and of any other subsidiary registrars.

> Ultimately, there has to be a viable business for multiple registrars;
> if Verisign is buying registrars at fire-sale prices because they were
> failing, that may be better than them simply disappearing and leaving chaos,
> but if Verisign is buying (US) registrars to get rid of competition, there 
> should
> be some way to hit them with the Sherman act.

I'm not talking about preventing all acquisitions, just those that
would result in a single company controlling a quite large percentage
of registered domain names.

If Verisign is unable to buy them without putting their accreditation
at stake, then the registrar needs to find another who is willing to
buy them out, and if that means they have to accept a lower offer,
that is just a fact of life.

I think that the principle of fostering competition, especially at
this state still, means a limit set lower than the threshold necessary
to trigger a sherman act violation.

These are contractual requirements, so it has nothign to do with any
government regulatory bodies.

> Unfortunately I don't think the registrar business is big enough to attract
> the attention of the EU competition commissioner yet.

Well, this is about self organization and contract requirements
according to ICANN.  Let's hold them to that and make contract
requirements that help foster those principles that are supposed to be
driving this process.


-- 
Best regards,
William X Walsh <william@userfriendly.com>
Userfriendly.com Domains
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