Lesley Cowley on Verisign deal

[Whois-SearchWhois-Search is verified member.]

Interesting quote on:

http://www.itweek.co.uk/itweek/news/2151952/deal-lets-verisign-hike-com

"Lesley Cowley, chief executive of .uk registry Nominet, said that if prices are increased significantly, companies may start to think about registering with other domains, or reducing their portfolio of web sites. “I have sympathy with VeriSign’s need to determine prices, but [if prices go up] people will think more carefully about choosing [.com],” Cowley said. “One of the reasons for Icann coming in to being was to promote competition, so it’s ironic that it is [being accused of being anti-competitive].”"

ermmmmmmm......

http://www.nic.uk/governance/egm/egmqanda/

"Are you going to increase prices?

.....................We cannot promise that we would never, ever, increase prices because that would be unwise - but we do not plan to."


hmmmmmm......

 

[gromy]

Interesting, Beasty's suggestion has verisign written allover it

So at some point create a new shell company, wind up Nominet, drop the registry, cash and all the other assets into Newco - then rename it Nominet and float it.

 

[Beasty]

Gromy - if I'm reading the proposal right - Nominet would not even have to go for an ICANN-Verisign split to move everything into a clean, commercial vehicle - though they could opt for that too I think.

I'm not sure that the idea that .com and co.uk are in competition is accurate - if a business can get both it will. I can't imagine a situation where a CEO says "Let's get the co.uk - it's a tenner cheaper than the .com." Perhaps in the specialised domain warehousing business - but I'm no expert in that and would be happy if someone better qualified could comment.

Also, if .com prices rise - doesn't that leave Nominet with more room to raise prices themselves - without losing market share? They could track .com rises and remain cheaper than them - but still make more money. Equally, ISPs could do the same.