WATPA: FW: .Net Domain Bids to Close at Midnight

From: Norm Jacknis <norm@jacknis.com>
Date: Tue Jan 18 2005 - 22:30:14 EST

http://www.internetnews.com/xSP/article.php/3460481
* January 18, 2005 *
*.Net Bids to Close at Midnight*
*By Jim Wagner
<http://www.internetnews.com/feedback.php/http://www.internetnews.com/xSP/article.php/3460481>*

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) will
announce in the next few days a list of bidders vying to take over
management of the .net top-level domain (TLD).

As previously reported
<http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article.php/3451011> on
/internetnews.com/, there are several frontrunners, including VeriSign
(Quote <http://www.internetnews.com/stocks/quotes/quote.php/VRSN>, Chart
<http://www.internetnews.com/stocks/quotes/chart.php/VRSN/chart>), deNIC
and Afilias.

Kieran Baker, an ICANN spokesman, said the organization will issue a
statement Wednesday with the full list of bidders, though he isn't sure
whether the request for proposals (RFP) from the bidders will be
published in their entirety to protect business proprietary information.

In the near future, Baker said, the organization will also announce the
third-party independent auditor overseeing the bidding process. Though
they have a short list of candidates, ICANN can't announce an auditor,
he said, because ICANN needs to ensure there is no conflict of interest
between the company and the bidders.

Management of one of the Internet's oldest properties is a highly
sought-after commodity. While it's not the largest TLD on the Internet
-- it falls behind .com and Germany's .de country code TLD (ccTLD) --
it's one of the more important domain extensions used today, as .net was
originally conceived as a transport layer for other domain sites.

Thus, Web sites like walmart.com and whitehouse.gov put their name
servers on the .net domain, while operating out of the common domain
address.

The bidding process has attracted some big-name attention. Companies
like Sun Microsystems (Quote
<http://www.internetnews.com/stocks/quotes/quote.php/SUNW>, Chart
<http://www.internetnews.com/stocks/quotes/chart.php/SUNW/chart>) and
Microsoft have already come out with their endorsements for U.S.-based
VeriSign, the current .net registry operator. Others, like IBM and
German telecommunications giant Deutsche Telekom , have opted for a more
neutral approach that selects the most qualified company.
Received on Tue Jan 18 22:30:46 2005

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