Ethos Capital, the private equity firm, is preparing a move that will shake up the entire internet. In the first quarter of 2020, it is expected to close a deal to acquire the Public Interest Registry (PIR), which owns every .org on the internet. The sale price has not yet been disclosed.
Non-profit organizations, which make up the majority of .org domains, do not agree to this acquisition.
There are currently about 10 million .org domains on the internet. The report of the acquisition has garnered 8,900 signatures against the sale and counting, including from the Girl Scouts of America and the YMCA.
The signatories are concerned that this could cause increases in domain prices, according to SaveDotOrg, a nonprofit technology professionals website run by NTEN.
“The concern is not just about this market,” Rick Cohen, CEO of the National Council of Nonprofits, told CNN Business . “It’s about this market, combined with the removal of pricing caps that have protected nonprofits from the excessive .org domain price increases they rely on.”
The PIR was created in 2002 by the Internet Society, a non-profit organization that is a leader in Internet standards, education, access, and policy. The idea was to assign a specific organization to manage the top-level .org domain.
The company's founder and CEO, Erik Brooks, said nonprofits shouldn't worry about big changes.
It wouldn't be the first time the .org domain has been owned by a for-profit company. Verisign owned the Public Interest Registry from 1995 to 2003.
But this latest move raises concerns: Ethos has only been in business for six months and PIR is one of the company's first investments.
