Verisign probed by US Dept of Justice over $135m .WEB auction

IT.com

owl

Active Member
The US Department of Justice is digging into the highly unusual auction of internet extension .web last year, the company that purchased it has admitted.

Speaking on Verisign's quarterly earnings conference call on Thursday, CEO Jim Bidzos told investors that on January 18 the registry had received a civil investigative demand (CID) from the antitrust division of the DoJ "requesting certain information relating to Verisign's potential operation of the .web gTLD."

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/02/10/doj_investigating_auction_of_dot_web/
 
While competition is a good thing, industries like this can be over-competitive. Meaning that it can lead to shady deals getting done in order to gain an advantage over the competition. Maybe that's what the DOJ is thinking.
 
While competition is a good thing, industries like this can be over-competitive. Meaning that it can lead to shady deals getting done in order to gain an advantage over the competition. Maybe that's what the DOJ is thinking.

It definitely was shady, but ICANN is to blame. They knew that Nu Dot Co. was Verisign bidding.
 
Well, it doesn't really come as a surprise, though, does it? These kind of companies just want to dominate on the market, and there is no line they will not cross to have that title.
 
It's sad that there seems to be such a fine line between competition and greed. Blurred lines like this have always been bad for any kind of business.
 
Seeing how these new registries have operated with taking domains back, jacking up prices, premium renewals, zone stuffing, lying about usage, financial health, etc. I'm glad they didn't win .WEB.

Maybe it is for the best Verisign won .WEB? Or will .WEB be run the same way?
 
It's Verisign.........what do you think? You talk about other companies being shady, but Verisign is no angel here, we all know that. While apparently it was legal, going through Nu DotCo like they did just smacked of backroom dealing.
 
Never said Verisign was an Angel. I simply stated that new domain registries practices have been ridiculous. You agree with that?

Verisign was the first company to introduce premium renewals with .TV. Perhaps .WEB will not be run differently? Of course .TV did away with it when they realized it wasn't working.

It's Verisign.........what do you think? You talk about other companies being shady, but Verisign is no angel here, we all know that. While apparently it was legal, going through Nu DotCo like they did just smacked of backroom dealing.
 
That's the thing Owl.......the market will always decide what the players will ultimately do. If Verisign wants to continue being a bunch of weasels.........they'll find out sooner or later that it won't work with us. At least the ethical among us.
 
The market decided premium renewals don't work. People want to pay $10 - $20 per year for .com domains.

I imagine Verisign wants the $135 million back at some point. Or do they? :)

They have the largest registrar network from running .com/.net so launching .web will be easy. If they intend to launch it. It was a smart defensive move.

Will the .web wholesale price be similar to that of .com? Maybe lower to undercut competition?

That's the thing Owl.......the market will always decide what the players will ultimately do. If Verisign wants to continue being a bunch of weasels.........they'll find out sooner or later that it won't work with us. At least the ethical among us.
 

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