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InternetNZ wants to fire two of its three (!) CEOs

InternetNZ, the .nz ccTLD operator, is proposing a radical simplification of the organization in order to stay relevant in the age of new gTLDs. A proposal put forward late last week would see the non-profit organization fold its two subsidiaries back into the parent and consolidate management under a single CEO. Currently, InternetNZ owns Domain […]
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.nz, Domain Registries, internetnz

CIRA and Nominum offering DNS firewall

Canadian ccTLD registry CIRA has started offering DNS-based security services to Canadian companies. The company has partnered with DNS security services provider Nominum to develop DNS Firewall, which it said lets customers “block access to malicious content before it can reach their network”. It’s basically a recursive DNS service with a layer of filterware that […]
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cira, Domain Registries, nominum, WannaCry

DENIC gets approved for registry escrow

DENIC is now able to offer data escrow services to gTLD registries, in addition to registrars. The non-profit company, which runs Germany’s .de, said it gained ICANN approval for the registry escrow function June 6. Back in March, ICANN approved it for the registrar escrow services. All ICANN-accredited registries and registrars are contractually obliged to […]
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.DE, denic, Domain Registries

MMX says .vip renewals to be at 70%+

MMX believes the biggest money-spinner in its new gTLD portfolio, .vip, will see first-year renewals in excess of 70%. The company said this morning that it is projecting renewals towards the top end of industry norms based on manual renewals to date. .vip was a bit of a hit in China, topping a quarter-million domains […]
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.vip, Domain Registries, mmx, renewals

Three-million domain .au deal up for grabs

auDA has formally launched the process that will could see it replace .au back-end provider Neustar with an in-house registry by the end of June 2018. The Australian ccTLD operator has opened a “Request for Expressions of Interest” as the first stage of a procurement process for software and/or services to support its recently announced […]
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.au, auda, back-end, Domain Registries, rfp

Richemont kills off two more dot-brands

Luxury goods maker Richemont has decided to ditch two more of its dot-brand gTLDs. The company has asked ICANN to terminate its registry contracts for .chloe and .montblanc, according to documents published by ICANN late last week. Chloe is a fashion brand; Mont Blanc sells pens, jewelery and such. No reason was given for either […]
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.chloe, .montblanc, Domain Registries, dot-brands, richemont, watches

Key-Systems buys reseller EDC

Key-Systems has acquired one of its resellers, European Domain Centre. The acquiring registrar did not disclose the terms of the deal, but said EDC will help boost its own BrandShelter corporate registrar business. EDC says it has clients including AirBnB, Campari, Lycamobile, iStockPhoto and BusinessWire. The company was founded in 2003 by Nikolaj Borge and […]
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Domain Registries, edc, european domain centre, key=systems, rrpproxy

Neustar’s .au deal in peril as Aussies look in-house

Australian ccTLD registry auDA is looking at bringing its back-end infrastructure in house, to the possible detriment of Neustar. In a surprise move, auDA said late last month that several months of talks with AusRegistry, aimed at possibly extending its current back-end contract beyond 2018, had failed. AusRegistry has operated .au for auDA since 2002, […]
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.au, auda, Domain Registries

More change at the top at Donuts as Tindal steps down

Donuts has lost co-founder and COO Richard Tindal, who has announced his retirement. Tindal was one of the four domain industry executives who founded Donuts in order to take advantage of ICANN’s new gTLD program about seven years ago. No reason was given for his departure, which was announced in a blog post, beyond “retirement”. […]
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Domain Registries

Second emergency registry tested with dead dot-brand

ICANN is running its second test of the Emergency Back-End Registry Operator system, designed as a failover for bankrupt gTLDs. This time, the EBERO under the microscope is CORE Association, one of the three approved providers. It this week took over operation of .mtpc, a dot-brand gTLD that Mitsubishi applied for, was delegated, never used, […]
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.mtpc, Domain Registries, doosan, ebero, mitsubishi