Ethos Capital's Donuts Buy Said Not a Back Door to .Org

Ethos Capital's buying control of Donuts isn't a plot for back door control of .org, a Donuts representative told us Monday. The venture capital firm announced Friday it's taking a controlling interest in the domain name giant, which recently bought top-level domain registry Afilias. ICANN shot down Ethos Capital's attempt last year to buy the Public Interest Registry (PIR), which operates .org, after an outcry from public interest advocates and some lawmakers (see 2005010003). It's unclear whether the private equity firm's buy of Afilias, which runs .org's technical operations, could signal another try for PIR, emailed Jothan Frakes, CEO of registrar Plisk.com. "No," emailed Donuts founder and board member Paul Stahura. The technical registry fees Afilias receives for operating .org are small in proportion to Afilias' revenue, and when combined with Donuts, even smaller, he said. Moreover, PIR and the Internet Society, which owns it, have the option to move their back-end provider to whoever offers the best service for the lowest price, Stahura added. The combined shows "really noteworthy" domain name industry consolidation, Frakes said: Centralnic made numerous acquisitions in 2020, as did mmx.co, which acquired ICM Registry, while GoDaddy bought Neustar's registry business. The industry "saw some consistency" in the shifts that working during the pandemic caused, he said. Not only did registrations continue, but the secondary market also had growth. There were record domain name sales, such as $20 million for money.com. It's important to keep an eye on how these vertically integrated businesses operate and whether competition remains, Frakes said. Ethos Capital didn't comment.