I too am a CPA and am extremely concerned that you make unsubstantiated statements
about the realistic nature of IOD's financial numbers. I too read IOD's financial
projections and ICANN's staff report. While I see that there certainly could be
changes to their projections, I see the same with all the applicants equally, however,
I see no mention of these problems by ICANN except in IOD's case. This hardly seems
fair to me.As far as you being concerned about the experience that IOD has in
the registry business, I find it equally amusing that you would think that only a
company that currently performs this service could do it correctly. If this
world thought as you do, there would be one company for each industry (the original
one). The fact is, new companies that come along in any industry usually have a better
way of doing things and often make the whole industry stronger. That's referred
to as innovation and competition.
You state that you have concerns about the ability
of IOD to handle the rapid growth. You go on to say that the collapse of many
of the dot coms is evidence of this. This statement is absurd. There are many
reasons for the collapse of many dot com companies, including poor management, poor
business plans, free flowing capital, and poor financial advice. Rapid growth is
hardly the main reason for the collapse of those that did.
I won't sit here and
say that there won't be growing pains, but please be fair about stating that whoever
gets these new TLD's, the pains will be very similar.
The last point that you make
about the risk management is perhaps the one I find most disturbing. You show me
a risk manager that wouldn't invest every available penny they have in IOD (or any
other registrar)if they were granted the .web TLD, and I will show you a liar. Whoever
is granted the new TLD's will be profitable, very profitable. Why else would
so many applicants put up $50,000 to $100,000 of non-refundable capital?
I'm not
sure whether you are just a puppet for Afilias or you are really just uninformed
on the issues. Either way I felt compelled to respond to your nonsense.
Jim Lewis
CPA