News Review: Verisign's Big Win of gTLD WEB; ICANN Litigation Report

"Funds must be used in a manner that supports directly ICANN’s Mission and Core Values and also allows ICANN to maintain its not for profit status."--ICANN's new gTLDs applicant guidebook--see this week's FEATURES further below.

Domain Mondo's review and look ahead [pdf], starting first with the macro view, the big picture, after cutting through all the noise:

• Democrats nominated Hillary Clinton, during a week of sweltering temperatures in Philly. WikiLeaks' #DNCleaks caused the resignation of the DNC Chair, and even worse, exposed Hillary's "rigged" election in the primaries over rival Bernie Sanders, as well as collusion between the Democratic Party's DNC and establishment mainstream media. Mainstream media distortion and bias are now well-documented and widely recognized, and could backfire this year among a disaffected electorate. TV Ratings: Hillary Clinton's DNC Speech Falls Short of  Donald Trump's RNC Speech in Viewers - HollywoodReporter.com: "DNC Day 4: 33.3 million;  RNC Day 4: 34.9 million." Ipsos poll conducted for Reuters, July 25-29, 2016 (pdf) shows Clinton and Trump tied among likely voters in a 4-way race--Clinton, Trump, Stein (Green), Johnson (Libertarian)--and that Clinton and Trump have identical unfavorable/favorable ratings of 57% Unfavorable / 43% Favorable. See e.g., Clinton yet to tackle voter distrust issue | FT.com. There are 100 days left until Election Day November 8, 2016.

• More terrorist attacks again this past week in Europe, see here and here. Thousands of German protesters prepare for Angela 'Merkel Must Go' demonstration | dailymail.co.uk: "They are calling for her resignation over open door immigration policy - Comes after four brutal attacks leaving nearly a dozen dead in one week - Three of the attackers were among 1.1million who entered as refugees ..."

•  The Rio Olympic Games 2016 begin on Friday, August 5, and end on Sunday, August 21. Many problems, including pollution and crime and terrorism.

•  US economy grows less than expected in Q2 - Business Insider.com; while UK economic growth stronger than expected in Q2 - FT.com. See also Eurozone recovery loses momentum in second quarter | FT.com: "Data cast doubt on strength of revival as French economy grinds to halt ...  [failing] to grow at all in the second quarter ..."

• FEATURES: Dot WEB Auction & Verisign; ICANN Litigation Status Report

UPDATE August 1, 2016: Verisign Statement Regarding .WEB Auction Results: "VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN), a global leader in domain names and internet security, today announced the following information pertaining to the .WEB top-level domain (TLD): The Company entered into an agreement with Nu Dot Co LLC wherein the Company provided funds for Nu Dot Co's bid for the .WEB TLD. We are pleased that the Nu Dot Co bid was successful. We anticipate that Nu Dot Co will execute the .WEB Registry Agreement with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and will then seek to assign the Registry Agreement to Verisign upon consent from ICANN. As the most experienced and reliable registry operator, Verisign is well-positioned to widely distribute .WEB. Our expertise, infrastructure, and partner relationships will enable us to quickly grow .WEB and establish it as an additional option for registrants worldwide in the growing TLD marketplace. Our track record of over 19 years of uninterrupted availability means that businesses and individuals using .WEB as their online identity can be confident of being reliably found online. And these users, along with our global distribution partners, will benefit from the many new domain name choices that .WEB will offer." (emphasis added)

ICANN new gTLD Applicant Guidebook (excerpt)

.WEB Auction: Early in the week, Ruby Glen, LLC (Donuts affiliate), applicant for new gTLD .WEB, struck out in its attempt to stop the new gTLD .WEB auction but the U.S. District Court threw it a "bone"--"the Court grants Plaintiff leave to amend the Complaint to attempt to establish federal subject matter jurisdiction" (more in ICANN Litigation Status Report below). See also: New gTLD WEB, Ruby Glen, LLC v. ICANN, Complaint & TRO Request.

.WEB Auction Results--New gTLD dot WEB 'Last Resort' ICANN Auction: and the Winner Is?--according to ICANN, Nu Dot Co LLC was the winner of the .WEB auction on July 27th with a "winning price" of $135 million. Reportedly, Nu Dot Co may have an agreement to assign its contractual rights in .WEB to Verisign, registry operator of .COM and .NET. If so, this is a real win-win-win for:

• ICANN which will receive the net .WEB auction proceeds to be used for beneficent purposes in accordance with the new gTLD guidebook (pdf) (graphic above); see below.*
• The millions of domain name registrants of more than 143 million .COM & .NET domain names, who will be assured that a trusted registry operator will be operating .WEB in a way that is complementary to existing gTLDs .COM and .NET; and
• Verisign and its shareholders, for adding what many consider the most valuable of all new gTLDs, .WEB, to its offerings. The existing market potential for .WEB is HUGE--for example "web" -- site:*.com - Google Search: returns "about 1,900,000,000 results (0.48 seconds)"--examples: web.airdroid.com and web.whatsapp.com are potential customers for airdroid.web and whatsapp.web respectively. Also don't be surprised to see more new keyword+web .COM domain name registrations before .WEB even launches.

UPDATE: *What happens to the .WEB net proceeds out of that $135 million "winning price"? 27 July 2016 New gTLD .WEB Auction | ICANN.org: "The proceeds from New gTLD Program auctions, which will total more than $230 million [with .WEB net proceeds included]--[UPDATE: Total Net Auction Proceeds now held by ICANN $233,455,563]--are being reserved. The multistakeholder community will develop proposals for how these proceeds could be distributed. A community-based drafting team is currently working on a charter for a Cross-Community Working Group that will create recommendations for Board consideration"

ICANN Litigation Status Report (July 31, 2016):

Ruby Glen, LLC v. ICANN lawsuit filed in United States District Court for the Central District of California re: new gTLD .WEB. Status: Plaintiff's motion for TRO denied; Plaintiff granted leave to amend its Complaint and establish federal subject matter jurisdiction, by August 8, 2016, failing which, the action may be dismissed without prejudice. Analysis and opinion: this case was a loser from the get-go unless Plaintiff, an affiliate of new gTLDs registry operator Donuts, has more facts in support of its claims than indicated in the pleadings thus far. Plaintiff's failures to 1) properly plead federal subject matter jurisdiction, and 2) promptly serve and give notice to ICANN, as required by the court's rules, are telling.

DotConnectAfrica Trust v. ICANN lawsuit filed in United States District Court for the Central District of California re: new gTLD .AFRICA. Status: jury trial (10-12 days) scheduled to begin February 28, 2017. Interlocutory appeals re: preliminary injunction are pending before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Dismissed defendant and appellant ZA Central Registry's opening brief was due July 22, 2016, but has not yet been posted on ICANN's website. The answering brief from appellee DotConnectAfrica Trust is due August 19, 2016, with optional reply brief due September 9, 2016. Analysis and opinion: this case stands as a black-eye and stain upon ICANN under the leadership of former CEO Fadi Chehade and his crony, Akram Atallah, who is still President of ICANN's Global Domains Division (which administers the application process for new gTLDs such as .AFRICA). In this case, ICANN--its Board of Directors, officers, staff, as well as the GAC--failed the global internet community. Hopefully ICANN has learned from this experience and will, in the future, maintain fairness, impartiality, objectivity and transparency, and also be cognizant of the inherent conflicts of interest, in all of ICANN's processes. ICANN should steer clear of geopolitics. Full Stop. Period. It is not the job of ICANN management to curry favor with governments--Brazil, China, U.S., France, E.U., etc.,--or any special interests, e.g., TheDNA.org, INTA.org, InternetAssociation.org, or any other particular party or stakeholder(s), on any matter within the scope and mission of ICANN. The job of ICANN is to carry out its mission only in accordance with the global public interest. That said, this litigation may produce good legal precedent for future enforcement of ICANN's release contained in the new gTLD guidebook (pdf). Ultimately, I expect .AFRICA will be delegated to ZA Central Registry unless this litigation produces more revelations of misconduct by ICANN or other parties.

Ben Haim v. Islamic Republic of Iran; Calderon-Cardona v. Democratic People's Republic of Korea; Rubin v. Islamic Republic of Iran; Stern v. Islamic Republic of Iran; Weinstein v. Islamic Republic of Iran; Wyatt v. Syrian Arab Republic filed in United States District Court for the District of Columbia re: whether ccTLDs .IR (IRAN), .SY (SYRIA), and .KP (North Korea), are property subject to judicial attachment. Status: on appeal, oral arguments were heard January 21, 2016, now waiting for a decision from U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Analysis and opinion: This case is a wild card with potentially negative ramifications for ICANN. The U.S. government intervened with its own amicus curiae brief (pdf) in support of ICANN, but its motion to participate in oral arguments was denied by the appellate court. Ultimately, this case could end up before the U.S. Supreme Court. UPDATE August 2, 2016: US Court of Appeals Decision re: ICANN & Iran, Syria, North Korea ccTLDs | DomainMondo.com - Court of Appeals affirms District Court decision that the ccTLDs are unattachable, handing ICANN and the "global community" a legal victory in a case that could have jeopardized the IANA stewardship transition.

Other News:

• TheDomains.com reported this week that top-level domains .COM and .NET, both operated by Verisign, were the first "foreign" TLDs to be added to China's government-required real name verification (RNV) system, for use inside China by Chinese citizens.

• Comments close this coming week at ICANN on:

• Reference Label Generation Rulesets (LGRs) for the Second Level: Close Date 1 Aug 2016 23:59 UTC.
• PTI Governance Documents: Close Date 7 Aug 2016 23:59 UTC.

• Q2 2016 Earnings Releases & Webcasts with coverage on Domain Mondo this coming week:

• GoDaddy $GDDY Aug 3
• Web.com $WEB Aug 4

• Five most popular posts (# of pageviews Sun-Sat) this week on DomainMondo.com:

1. News Review [24Jul]: IANA Transition & ICANN Corruption, Capture, and Control
2. Q2 2016 Earnings Webcasts July 28: $GOOG $AMZN $NSR $VRSN
3. New gTLD dot WEB 'Last Resort' ICANN Auction: and the Winner Is?
4. Facebook $FB Q2 2016 Earnings Results & LIVE Webcast July 27
5. New gTLD WEB, Ruby Glen, LLC v. ICANN, Complaint & TRO Request

• 5 Other Reading Recommendations:

1. Amazon’s Profits Grow More Than 800 Percent, Lifted by Cloud Services | NYTimes.com: "... big profits thanks to the lucrative cloud computing business. On Thursday, Amazon reported net income of $857 million in its most recent quarter, the third quarter in a row in which it has shown a record profit. Its net income for those three months was also more than nine times the amount for the same period last year ..."
2. Yahoo And Verizon | SeekingAlpha.com: "The deal puts the price tag at $4.83 billion. The move pulls Verizon further into the digital media realm. For Yahoo, it's a stunning fall from an Internet giant to a has-been put through a long sale process." See also: Rise and Fall of Yahoo $YHOO, What Happened, Missed Opportunities.
3. Made in China: Four horsemen of the iPhone apocalypse | ZDNet.com: "Today it's the $100 value handset. Tomorrow it will be the $200 premium smartphone. There's nothing left for the traditional device OEMs with those kind of margins. Huawei, ZTE, Xiaomi and Lenovo are coming, and Apple and Samsung can't stop them."
4. Why [Public] Pensions’ Last Defense Is Eroding | WSJ.com: Low interest rates "... pension critics have more ammunition to argue for more aggressive benefit cuts, said Daniel DiSalvo, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank that supports 401(k)-style options for public pensions." See also Congress must address public pension plan unfunding - Pensions & Investments | pionline.com.
5. What this divergence of margin debt and stock prices tells us--prior peaks in margin debt were followed by a collapse in margin debt, and a spectacular crash in stocks--"But this time, it’s different ... Seven-plus years of “whatever-it-takes” central-bank-created global liquidity, QE, and interest rate repression to zero, and below zero, have changed the assumptions and dynamics of everything ... business sales have been declining since mid-2014. Earnings have been declining for about that long ... the S&P 500 aggregate price-earnings ratio, based on GAAP, has soared to over 25, a dizzying number that sets off all kinds of alarm bells. And yet, the global flood of liquidity keeps pouring into this market, and fundamentals no longer matter, sales and earnings no longer matter, risks no longer matter, and money is free, or nearly free, for institutional investors ... foundations have crumbled. And all bets are off."-- WolfStreet.com

Keep up with the U.S. Election 2016 on Domain Mondo's election page.

-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo 

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DISCLAIMER

Rise and Fall of Yahoo $YHOO, What Happened, Missed Opportunities

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer Talks Verizon Deal and Her Future at the Company:

Video above: Marissa Mayer, chief executive officer at Yahoo (principal domain: yahoo.com), discusses Verizon's $4.83 billion acquisition of Yahoo's web business, how she envisions her role at the new company, the legacy of Yahoo on the web, and reflects on her experiences at Yahoo. She speaks with Bloomberg's Emily Chang on "Bloomberg ‹GO› on July 25.

Infographic above courtesy of VisualCapitalist.com: The saga surrounding one of the world’s most recognizable internet stocks has come to a close. Yahoo $YHOO has finally sold its operating business to the highest bidder. The winner was Verizon – and the price was $4.8 billion. That’s worth less than 1% of the company it had multiple opportunities to buy: Google (now Alphabet).

WHAT HAPPENED? Technology changes fast, and successful companies must leverage smart acquisitions in building for the future. Facebook bought Oculus Rift and Instagram, and Google bought companies like Youtube and DoubleClick.

YAHOO'S MISSED OPPORTUNITIES: In 1998, Yahoo was approached by two young Stanford Ph.D. students to buy their search engine algorithm. Larry Page and Sergey Brin had created PageRank – a quick way to find the most relevant website for a given search query. Yahoo skipped out on buying it for $1 million, rationalizing that it would take people off of Yahoo’s website, while decreasing traffic and ad revenues. Even later on when Google’s search business was well-established, Yahoo CEO Terry Semel balked at Larry and Sergey’s $1 billion asking price. He would eventually agree to it, but by then it was too late. The Google guys had already decided to up their price to a heftier $3 billion. Around that same time, Yahoo was turned down by a 22-year-old Mark Zuckerberg. Yahoo offered to buy Facebook for $1 billion, but Zuckerberg declined. This was a moment that billionaire Facebook investor Peter Thiel lauds as the major turning point for the company that allowed it to become the behemoth it is today. Some sources even say that if the offer was increased to $1.1 billion, that Facebook’s board would have forced Zuckerberg to take it. But it’s not just the offers made that were missed opportunities. Yahoo also turned down a hostile takeover from Microsoft in 2008 for $44.6 billion that valued the company for far more than it is worth today.

ALIBABA: In 2005, Yahoo bought a 40% stake in emerging online retail company Alibaba, which makes up the majority of Yahoo’s market capitalization today. In the context of the recent Verizon deal, the Alibaba shares are likely being spun off into a separate investment vehicle.

See also on Domain Mondo: YAHOO $YHOO Q2 2016 Earnings, Webcast Monday July 18

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DISCLAIMER

Dating Apps, Winners, Losers, Traditional Advertising No Longer Works

Goliaths vs. Innovators

Video above: Scott Galloway, NYU Stern Marketing Professor. Video published July 28, 2016, by L2inc.com.

• Loser: Established CPG [ConsumerPackaged Goods] companies. Brands like L'Oréal Paris and Gillette are rapidly losing share to smaller, more agile rivals skilled at maximizing search visibility.
• Loser: Specialty Retail brands who email too much. Retailers sent 15% more emails in Q1 2016 than during the holiday season, but the resulting open rates proved that sometimes less is more.
• Winner or loser? Parents now spend less on food, transportation, and clothing than they did fifty years ago. However, childcare and education costs have soared.
• Who's winning in dating apps? Match Group, which owns 64% of the app ecosystem, including OKCupid and Tinder. 

Transcript:

A loser: established CPG [consumer-packaged goods] brands. 90 of the 100 largest CPG brands in the US lost share in the past year and two-thirds registered sales declines. The reason? Traditional advertising no longer works. Who's winning? Smaller brands with agile product innovation that digital - specifically search - rewards.

Two examples: NYX, who outperforms L'Oréal Paris 3 times in organic search visibility despite only bidding on 129 terms, versus 60,000 terms for L'Oréal Paris or Harry's, who in 5 short months jumped from number 9 in organic search visibility to number 3 as Gillette fell to second and Amazon secured the top spot.

So what's going on here? In sum, the diligence vehicles of Amazon reviews and Google search make it easier to connect you and the right product without having to default to the safety of a brand.

A loser: Specialty Retail brands who email too much. If your inbox feels overwhelmed, that's because it is. Retailers sent 15% more emails in Q1 2016 than during the overwhelming holiday season. But more isn't always better. With each additional email campaign, open rates declined by 15 basis points. Asking consumers explicitly and implicitly for additional information - such as you can customize the content and the email - is a winning strategy.

Everyone knows raising a child is expensive, but the complexion of that cost has changed dramatically in the past 50 years. I've told both my sons they need to start pulling their weight. Lorde wrote a Grammy-nominated song when she was 13. My kid at nine still lets the bath overflow - even when he's in it. Parents are spending less on food, transportation, and clothing but childcare and education costs have surged, accounting for a fifth of parental expenses - a big change from 1960, when they were just 2%.

The most affordable place in the US to raise a child? Morristown, Tennessee, where a family of 4 can meet their basic needs on $50,000 a year. That's half the required income necessary to raise a family in New York or Washington, DC.

Dating apps: winners or losers? By the way, my nickname around here is Swipe Left. It depends which one you're on and what you're looking for. Let''s look at some of the data.

• Tinder is the most popular and Happn has the most daily engagement.
• Christian Mingle has the highest proportion of women.
• Grindr has the lowest churn rate and eHarmony has the highest.

But who really wins? Match Group, which owns 64% of the dating app ecosystem.

I can save you some money. This is literally a fail-safe way to approach women. You walk up. Scott. Scorpio. Never fails.


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DISCLAIMER

Q2 2016 Earnings Webcasts July 28: $GOOG $AMZN $NSR $VRSN

Alphabet $GOOG, Amazon $AMZN, Neustar $NSR, and Verisign $VRSN are all reporting Q2 2016 earnings on July 28 after market close:

Alphabet $GOOG $GOOGL Q2 2016 Earnings Call, July 28, 2016,  4:30 p.m. EDT:

Above video: Alphabet 2016 Q2 Earnings Call - Starts: July 28, 2016 at 4:30 p.m. EDT - Alphabet (Google) has a slowing search business, losses from its “moonshot investments” are detrimental to shareholder value, and troubles in Europe could be a long-lasting problem.

Alphabet $GOOG UP 18% Y/Y

•  Alphabet Inc. NASDAQ: GOOG and NASDAQ: GOOGL
Principal domain: google.com
Investor Relations: abc.xyz/investor - Alphabet Inc., quarterly conference call to discuss second quarter 2016 financial results, Thursday, July 28th at 4:30 p.m. EDT (1:30 p.m. Pacific Time). The LIVE webcast of the earnings conference call can be accessed here. A replay of the webcast will be available through the same link following the conference call. Visit the Investor Relations website at abc.xyz/investor on July 28, 2016 to view the earnings release prior to the conference call. Twitter feed $GOOG OR $GOOGL.

UPDATE: Earnings Press Release - Alphabet Q2 2016 EPS of $8.42 beat consensus estimate by $0.38. Revenue of $21.5B (+21.3% Y/Y) beats by $740M. Shares UP after-hours. Alphabet (GOOG) Q2 2016 Results - Earnings Call Transcript | SeekingAlpha.com

Amazon $AMZN UP 40% Y/Y

•  Amazon.com, Inc. NASDAQ: AMZN
Principal domain: amazon.com
Investor Relations: Amazon.com Investor Relations: IR Home - Q2 2016 Amazon.com Inc Earnings Conference Call / LIVE Webcast 07/28/16 at 5:30 p.m. EDT. Twitter feed $AMZN

UPDATE: Amazon Q2 2016 EPS of $1.78 beats consensus estimate by $0.67. Revenue of $30.4B (+31.1% Y/Y) beats by $850M. Press release. Shares UP after-hours. Amazon.com (AMZN) Q2 2016 Results - Earnings Call Transcript | SeekingAlpha.com

Neustar $NSR DOWN 13% Y/Y

•  NeuStar, Inc. NYSE: NSR
Principal domain: neustar.biz
Investor Relations: http://www.neustar.biz/about-us/investor-relations - Q2 2016 Neustar, Inc. Earnings Conference Call and Webcast, Thursday, July 28, 2016, 4:30 pm EDT. Twitter feed $NSR

UPDATE: NeuStar Q2 2016 EPS of $1.26 beats consensus estimates by $0.05.Revenue of $298.56M (+16.3% Y/Y) beats by $1.19M. Earnings release. The company also reported that loss of NPAC contracts would likely now occur in 2018. Neustar's (NSR) CEO Lisa Hook on Q2 2016 Results - Earnings Call Transcript | SeekingAlpha.com

Verisign $VRSN UP 20% Y/Y

•  Verisign, Inc. NASDAQ: VRSN
Principal domain: verisign.com
Investor Relations: https://investor.verisign.com - VeriSign, Inc. earnings call for the second quarter 2016 will take place on Thursday, July 28, 2016, at 4:30 p.m. EDT. The earnings news release will be distributed to the wire services at approximately 4:05 p.m. (EDT) that day and will also be available directly from the company’s website at https://investor.verisign.com. Verisign will host a live teleconference call on July 28, 2016, at 4:30 p.m. (EDT), which will be accessible by direct dial at (888) 676-VRSN (U.S.) or (913) 312-1444 (international), conference ID: Verisign. A listen-only live webcast of the earnings conference call will also be available at https://investor.verisign.com. An audio archive of the call will be available at https://investor.verisign.com/events.cfm. Twitter feed: $VRSN

UPDATE: Verisign Q2 EPS of $0.87 beats consensus estimates by $0.01. Revenue of $286.47M (+9.1% Y/Y) beats by $2.27M. Shares UP after-hours. VeriSign's (VRSN) CEO Jim Bidzos on Q2 2016 Results - Earnings Call Transcript | SeekingAlpha.com.

• Listen to webcast
• Earnings Results
• Quarterly VRSN Convertible Debenture Dilution Q2-2016

Financial Highlights
• Verisign ended the second quarter with cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities of $1.9 billion, a decrease of $8 million from year-end 2015.
• Cash flow from operations was $161 million for the second quarter of 2016, compared with $175 million for the same quarter in 2015.
• Deferred revenues on June 30, 2016, totaled $988 million, an increase of $26 million from year-end 2015.
• During the second quarter, Verisign repurchased 1.7 million shares of its common stock for $150 million. At June 30, 2016, $766 million remained available and authorized under the current share repurchase program which has noexpiration.
• For purposes of calculating diluted EPS, the second quarter diluted share count included 21.9 million shares related to subordinated convertible debentures, compared with 17.0 million shares for the same quarter in 2015. These represent diluted shares and not shares that have been issued.

Business Highlights
• Verisign Registry Services added 0.78 million net new names during the second quarter, ending with 143.2 million
.com and .net domain names in the domain name base, which represents a 7.3 percent increase over the base at the end of the second quarter in 2015.
• In the second quarter, Verisign processed 8.6 million new domain name registrations for .com and .net, as compared to 8.7 million for the same quarter in 2015.
• The final .com and .net renewal rate for the first quarter of 2016 was 74.4 percent compared with 73.4 percent for the same quarter in 2015. Renewal rates are not fully measurable until 45 days after the end of the quarter.
• Verisign announces an increase in the annual fee for a .net domain name registration from $7.46 to $8.20, effective Feb. 1, 2017, per its agreement with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

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New gTLD dot WEB 'Last Resort' ICANN Auction: and the Winner Is?

UPDATE August 1, 2016: Verisign Statement Regarding .WEB Auction Results: "VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN), a global leader in domain names and internet security, today announced the following information pertaining to the .WEB top-level domain (TLD): The Company entered into an agreement with Nu Dot Co LLC wherein the Company provided funds for Nu Dot Co's bid for the .WEB TLD. We are pleased that the Nu Dot Co bid was successful. We anticipate that Nu Dot Co will execute the .WEB Registry Agreement with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and will then seek to assign the Registry Agreement to Verisign upon consent from ICANN. As the most experienced and reliable registry operator, Verisign is well-positioned to widely distribute .WEB. Our expertise, infrastructure, and partner relationships will enable us to quickly grow .WEB and establish it as an additional option for registrants worldwide in the growing TLD marketplace. Our track record of over 19 years of uninterrupted availability means that businesses and individuals using .WEB as their online identity can be confident of being reliably found online. And these users, along with our global distribution partners, will benefit from the many new domain name choices that .WEB will offer." (emphasis added)

UPDATE August 2, 2016: Total Net Auction Proceeds now held by ICANN $233,455,563 (including .WEB).
Original post starts here:

"An auction will be facilitated by Power Auctions LLC on 27 July 2016 to resolve string contention for one new generic top-level domain (gTLD) contention set: .WEB/.WEBS. This set is an indirect contention set consisting of both the WEB and WEBS strings. An indirect contention set is when two applications are both in direct contention with a third application, but not with one another. Eight applicants have completed all necessary prerequisites to participate in the “method of last resort” auction, and the auction will proceed on 27 July 2016. Within seven days after the completion of the auction, the results, including a results report, will be posted to the Auction Results page of the New gTLD Microsite. In addition, the Auction Proceeds page will be updated within seven days to reflect the proceeds and costs related to the Auction."--ICANN

UPDATE July 28, 2016: ICANN reports *NU DOT CO LLC is the Winning Bidder of .WEB with a winning price of $135 million,  and in addition "The Application in the “B” position was eliminated after Round 10, causing the Contention Set to divide and causing the Application of Vistaprint Limited (for .WEBS) to be deemed a Winning Application." See embed below:



*Nu Dot Co may have an agreement to assign its contractual rights in .WEB to Verisign, registry operator of .COM and .NET, based upon a report in DomainNameWire.com. The Verisign 10-Q filed July 28, 2016, disclosed:

"Subsequent to June 30, 2016, the Company incurred a commitment to pay approximately $130.0 million for the future assignment of contractual rights, which are subject to third-party consent. The payment is expected to occur during the third quarter of 2016." FORM 10-Q - VeriSign, Inc.

If true, the third-party referred to above, would be ICANN. In addition, all of this may have some bearing on whether Ruby Glen (Donuts) decides to amend its complaint and continue its U.S. District Court case--see New gTLD WEB, Ruby Glen, LLC v. ICANN, Complaint & TRO Request | DomainMondo.com.

Is $135 million too much to pay for new gTLD .WEB? That depends. As Warren Buffett says, "Price is what you pay, value is what you get."  Finally, to put this in historical perspective:

Verisign acquires Network Solutions for $21B - March 7, 2000: "VeriSign Inc. agreed to acquire Network Solutions Inc. for $21 billion in stock."

8 Applicants (for more info on each applicant see the bottom of this post):

1. Nu Dot Co
2. Charleston Road Registry (Google)
3. Web.com
4. DotWeb (Radix)
5. Ruby Glen (Donuts)
6. Afilias
7. Schlund Technologies
8. Vistaprint (WEBS applicant)

Contention Set WEB/WEBS (source: ICANN.org)

How we got here--an abbreviated history--there's a long history to new gTLD .WEB and not just beginning in 2012 with ICANN's expansion of gTLDs from 22 generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs) to more than 1000:

• New gTLD WEB, Ruby Glen, LLC v. ICANN, Complaint & TRO Request | DomainMondo.com (2016)
• Vistaprint Loses New gTLD dot WEBS IRP, dot WEB SCO, ICANN Prevails | DomainMondo.com (2015)
• IMAGE ONLINE DESIGN, INC. [IOD] vs. ICANN (2013) (pdf) see also IMAGE ONLINE DESIGN, INC. v. INTERNET CORPORATION FOR ASSIGNED NAMES AND NUMBERS | Leagle.com: "... On November 16, 2000, ICANN's Board of Directors issued its decision on new TLDs, identifying seven selected for the "proof of concept phase." The TLD .WEB was not selected. (Id.) At some time during the deliberations in 2000, the then Chairman of the Board of Directors Dr. Vincent Cerf stated, "I'm still interested in IOD. They've worked with .WEB for some time. To assign that to someone else given that they're actually functioning makes me uneasy ..."
• A recent comment on CircleID.com: ".web may not be usable in California ... IOD had an operational .web registry here in California dating from a very long time ago ... Whether you believe in competing root systems or not, .web by IOD was an operating business here in California well before ICANN, and it has existing contractual relationships. One (such as myself) might consider anyone operating another .web named service in California as an interference with my existing contractual relationships ... in which an established, older business has established a common law use of a name in business. One would hope that rather than stomping on pre-existing, and quite legal, prior business uses of .web in California that the new aspirant would reach out to the prior vendor and users and seek an accommodation or release."--Karl Auerbach

See also: New gTLD Program Auctions | ICANN New gTLDs | ICANN.org
and for more info on each applicant, click the link(s) below:

• 632 WEB 1-1296-36138 (In Auction) NU DOT CO LLC
• 868 WEB 1-1681-58699 (In Auction) Charleston Road Registry Inc. (Google)
• 946 WEB 1-1009-97005 (In Auction) Web.com Group, Inc.
• 986 WEB 1-956-26846 (In Auction) DotWeb Inc. (Radix)
• 1218 WEB 1-1527-54849 (In Auction) Ruby Glen, LLC (Donuts)
• 1360 WEB 1-1013-6638 (In Auction) Afilias Domains No. 3 Limited,
• 1717 WEBS 1-1033-73917 (In Auction) Vistaprint Limited
• 1750 WEB 1-1013-77165 (In Auction) Schlund Technologies GmbH

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DISCLAIMER

Facebook $FB Q2 2016 Earnings Results & LIVE Webcast July 27

Facebook $FB Shares UP 29% past 12 months

Facebook Q2 2016 Earnings results after market close on July 27. According to Zacks Investment Research, based on 8 analysts' forecasts, the consensus EPS (earnings per share) forecast for the quarter is $0.62. The reported EPS for the same quarter last year was $0.3. More info: nasdaq.com/symbol/fb.

LIVE Webcast of the Conference Call: Wednesday, July 27, 2016 5:00 pm EDT.
Following the call, a replay will be available at the investor relations website* (see below). A telephonic replay will be available for one week following the conference call at 404.537.3406 or 855.859.2056, Conference ID: 41929608 (source: Facebook press release).

UPDATE 27 Jul 2016: Q2 2016 EPS of $0.97 beats consensus estimate by $0.15. Revenue of $6.44B (+59.4% Y/Y) beats consensus estimate by $420M. Shares are UP in after-hours trading.
Press Release (pdf). Facebook (FB) Mark Elliot Zuckerberg on Q2 2016 Results - Earnings Call Transcript | SeekingAlpha.com.

Second Quarter 2016 Operational Highlights

• Daily active users (DAUs) – DAUs were 1.13 billion on average for June 2016, an increase of 17% year-over-year.
• Mobile DAUs – Mobile DAUs were 1.03 billion on average for June 2016, an increase of 22% year-over-year.
• Monthly active users (MAUs) – MAUs were 1.71 billion as of June 30, 2016, an increase of 15% year-over-year.
• Mobile MAUs – Mobile MAUs were 1.57 billion as of June 30, 2016, an increase of 20% year-over-year.

Second Quarter 2016 Other Financial Highlights

• Mobile advertising revenue – Mobile advertising revenue represented approximately 84% of advertising revenue for the second quarter of 2016, up from approximately 76% of advertising revenue in the second quarter of 2015.
• Capital expenditures – Capital expenditures for the second quarter of 2016 were $995 million.
• Cash and cash equivalents and marketable securities – Cash and cash equivalents and marketable securities were $23.29 billion at the end of the second quarter of 2016.

Facebook, Inc. NASDAQ: FB
Principal domain: facebook.com
Investor relations: investor.fb.com*
Subsidiaries include:

• PrivateCore: privatecore.com
• WhatsApp Inc.: whatsapp.com
• Oculus VR: oculus.com
• Instagram: instagram.com

Tweets about $FB

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Apple $AAPL and Twitter $TWTR, Q2 2016 Earnings Webcasts July 26

Top above: Apple $AAPL Down 21% past 12 months
Bottom: Twitter $TWTR Down 46% past 12 months

Apple $AAPL and Twitter $TWTR reported Q2 2016 earnings results, July 26 after market close: FQ3 EPS of $1.42 beats consensus estimate by $0.04. Revenue of $42.4B (-14.5% Y/Y) beats consensus estaimateby $310M, see press release for more details: Apple - Press Info - Apple Reports Third Quarter Results: "... financial results for its fiscal 2016 third quarter ended June 25, 2016. The Company posted quarterly revenue of $42.4 billion and quarterly net income of $7.8 billion, or $1.42 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $49.6 billion and net income of $10.7 billion, or $1.85 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 38 percent compared to 39.7 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 63 percent of the quarter’s revenue ..."  Stock is UP in after-hours trading. Apple (AAPL) Timothy Donald Cook on Q3 2016 Results - Earnings Call Transcript | SeekingAlpha.com

•  Apple Inc. NASDAQ: AAPL
Principal domain: apple.com
Investor Relations: investor.apple.com
Apple - Investor Relations Apple Inc. FY 16 Third Quarter Results (Q2 2016) Conference Call and Webcast: Tuesday, July 26, 2016 at 2:00 p.m. PDT / 5:00 p.m. EDT
Listen to the audio webcast - Apple Earnings Call: (Live streaming uses Apple’s HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) technology. HLS requires an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with Safari on iOS 7.0 or later, a Mac with Safari 6.0.5 or later on OS X v10.8.5 or later, or a PC with Microsoft Edge on Windows 10.)
Tweets about $AAPL


•  Twitter Inc. NYSE: TWTR
Principal domain: twitter.com
Investor Relations: investor.twitterinc.com

• Twitter Second Quarter Earnings Conference Call  Jul 26, 2016 2:00 PM PT / 5:00 PM ET
• Listen to webcast
• Q2' 2016 Shareholder Letter
• Earnings Press Release [stock down after-hours on July 26]
• Slide Presentation
• Selected Company Metrics and Financials
• 3M MAUs added in Q2 (1M more than expected).
• 313M total MAUs, 66M in United States (+1% Y/Y) and 247M globally (+4% Y/Y).
• +226% Y/Y change in ad engagements.
• -64% Y/Y change in cost per ad engagement.
• Revenue of $602M (+20% Y/Y) .

Twitter conference call to discuss these financial results at 2:00 p.m. PDT / 5:00 p.m. EDT. To listen to the LIVE audio webcast:  investor.twitterinc.com. Twitter (TWTR) Jack Dorsey on Q2 2016 Results - Earnings Call Transcript | SeekingAlpha.com

The company will be following the conversation about the earnings announcement on Twitter. To have your questions considered during Q&A, Tweet your question to @TwitterIR using #TWTR. Twitter has used, and intends to continue to use, its Investor Relations website and the Twitter accounts of @jack, @twitter and @TwitterIR as means of disclosing material non-public information and for complying with its disclosure obligations under Regulation FD.

Tweets by TwitterIR Tweets about $TWTR

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New gTLD WEB, Ruby Glen, LLC v. ICANN, Complaint & TRO Request

UPDATE: In Ruby Glen, LLC v. ICANN, U.S. District Court Denies TRO, .WEB Auction is ON! See New gTLD dot WEB 'Last Resort' ICANN Auction: and the Winner Is? | DomainMondo.com.

"Based on the strength of ICANN’s evidence submitted in opposition to the Application for TRO, and the weakness of Plaintiff’s efforts to enforce vague terms contained in the ICANN bylaws and Applicant Guidebook, the Court concludes that Plaintiff has failed to establish that it is likely to succeed on the merits, raise serious issues, or show that the balance of hardships tips sharply in its favor on its breach of contract, breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, and negligence claims. Moreover, because the results of the auction could be unwound, Plaintiff has not met its burden to establish that it will suffer irreparable harm in the absence of the preliminary injunctive relief it seeks. The Court additionally concludes that the public interest does not favor the postponement of the auction. Finally, the Court notes that Plaintiff’s Complaint has not adequately alleged a basis for this Court’s jurisdiction." (source: U.S. District Court Order, Ruby Glen v. ICANN, infra)

See embed below: Court Order Denying Plaintiff's Ex Parte Application for Temporary Restraining Order [PDF, 72 KB] 26 July 2016. See also:

• ICANN's Opposition to Ex Parte Application for Temporary Restraining Order [PDF, 255 KB] 
• Declaration of Christine Willett [PDF, 255 KB]
• Exhibits A to H to Declaration of Christine Willett [PDF, 887 KB]
• Declaration of Russ Weinstein [PDF, 257 KB]
• Exhibits A to C to Declaration of Russ Weinstein [PDF, 823 KB]
• Declaration of Jose Ignacio Rasco III [PDF, 166 KB]
• Declaration of Nicolai Bezsonoff [PDF, 264 KB]

Also on Domain Mondo: New gTLD dot WEB 'Last Resort' ICANN Auction: and the Winner Is?

Court Order Denying Plaintiff's Ex Parte Application for Temporary Restraining Order:

--Original post below--

ICANN has been sued by yet another new gTLD applicant. This time the suit involves new gTLD .WEB, currently scheduled for last resort auction on July 27. The lawsuit was filed in United States District Court for the Central District of California, on July 22, 2016, and in addition to the complaint (embedded below), also includes an ex parte application for temporary restraining order (TRO) (embedded below), together with declarations, and exhibits. ICANN has indicated it has not yet been served with the complaint or request for TRO. The complaint has drawn upon the U.S. District Court case involving new gTLD AFRICA, by requesting a declaration of rights regarding the release of ICANN required of all new gTLD applicants:

 "33. Plaintiff seeks a declaration of its rights regarding the enforceability of the Purported Release in light of California Civil Code Section 1668, which prohibits the type of broad exculpatory clauses contained in the Purported Release: “All contracts which have for their object, directly or indirectly, to exempt anyone from responsibility for his own fraud, or willful injury to the person or property or another, or violation of law, whether willful or negligent, are against the policy of the law.” 34. Plaintiff maintains that, on its face, the Release is “against the policy of the law” because it exempts ICANN from any and all claims arising out of the application process, even those arising from fraudulent or willful conduct."

Pleadings and other documents:

• Complaint [PDF, 535 KB] (embed below)
• Exhibits A to C to Complaint [PDF, 5.6 MB] 
• Plaintiff’s Ex Parte Application for Temporary Restraining Order; Memorandum of Points and Authorities [PDF, 812 KB] (embed below)
• Declaration of Paula Zecchini [PDF, 232 KB] 
• Exhibits A to J to Declaration of Paula Zecchini [PDF, 27.3 MB] 
• Declaration of Jonathon Nevett [PDF, 314 KB] 
• Exhibit A to Declaration of Jonathon Nevett [PDF, 614 KB] 

Complaint:


Plaintiff’s Ex Parte Application for Temporary Restraining Order; Memorandum of Points and Authorities:


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DISCLAIMER

Brexit a Month Later: Chicken Little Forecasts, Reality Check (videos)

Brits abroad | Brexit Breakdown:

Published on Jul 22, 2016: Now that the UK has a new government, Theresa May and her ministers have been looking further afield as the country prepares to negotiate its way out of the EU. James Blitz rounds up the week’s Brexit news.

U.K. PM Theresa May: Britain Won’t Leave EU Before End of 2016:

U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May speaks at a press conference following her first meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Published July 20, 2016

The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.--Franklin D. Roosevelt, U.S. President, FDR's First Inaugural Address (1933)

"... the arguments for big short-run damage from Brexit look quite weak ... Indeed, the rebound in British stocks, which are now above pre-Brexit levels, is already causing some backlash against conventional economists and their Chicken Little warnings. Sorry, people, sloppy thinking is always a vice, no matter what cause it’s used for." -- Paul Krugman, Nobel Prize-winning economist, June 30, 2016, NYTimes.com

Markets in Europe since the June 23rd Brexit vote: UK's FTSE100 UP +6.19%; Germany's DAX DOWN -1.07%, France's CAC40 DOWN -1.90%, Friday, July 22:

Top to Bottom: FTSE100, DAX, CAC40 (source: google.com)

CNN.com: [UK Prime Minister] May reiterated her commitment to Britain leaving the EU, following the vote to do so in a referendum last month. But although the country is leaving the EU, she said, "The United Kingdom is not leaving Europe. "I'm very clear, Brexit does mean Brexit," she said. "We will make a success of it. What we need to do in negotiating the deal is ensure that we listen to what people have said about the need for controls on free movement. But we also negotiate the right deal, and the best deal for the trade of goods and services for the British people." She also stressed that Britain should not be limited by focusing exclusively on its relationship with its European neighbors but should instead look to build beneficial ties throughout the world.

UK explores multi-billion pound free trade deal with China | BBC.com: "[UK] officials are looking at New Zealand's free trade agreement with China which took four years to negotiate and came into effect in 2008. Care would have to be taken over security concerns and the possibility of China "dumping" cheap imports in the UK - for example steel.... At the G20 many countries are now moving into practical mode ... [Brexit vote is] now a matter for the history books. The British public have spoken. The present challenge is seeing how the fifth largest economy in the world can take advantage of that decision, rebuilding a "close" trading relationship with the EU and new economic relationships with countries, like China, which, it should be remembered, has never had a free trade agreement with any EU country."

See also: News Review [24Jul] | DomainMondo.com:  As noted before on Domain Mondo, the EU actually needs the UK more than the UK needs the EU (which is why the UK, instead of EU-dependent Greece, will be the first member state to leave the EU)... UK Property Market Proves Resilient post-Brexit and One month after Brexit: ... "little Brexit effect on [UK] retail sales growth" and ecommerce transactions "showing similar growth rates to those before the referendum."

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News Review: IANA Transition & ICANN Corruption, Capture, and Control

"If one wanted to capture ICANN on a single issue, or a group of interrelated issues, the most practical tactic might be bribery"--John C. Coffee Jr., Columbia University Professor of Law, see this week's FEATURE further below.

Domain Mondo's review and look ahead [pdf], starting first with the macro view, the big picture, after cutting through all the noise: 

•  GOP nominates Trump: Peter Thiel at the 2016 RNC: "... Across the country, wages are flat. Americans get paid less today than 10 years ago ... Our economy is broken ... our government is broken ... We don't need to see Hillary Clinton's deleted emails; her incompetence is in plain sight. She pushed for a war in Libya, and today it's a training ground for ISIS. On this most important issue, Donald Trump is right, it's time to end the era of stupid wars and rebuild our country ... Of course, every American has a unique identity. I am proud to be gay. I am proud to be a Republican. But most of all, I am proud to be an American! I don't pretend to agree with every plank in our party's platform, but fake culture wars only distract us from our economic decline. And nobody in this race is being honest about it except Donald Trump ... Tonight, I urge all of my fellow Americans to stand up and vote for Donald Trump." See also Ivanka Trump's speech (video) that set social media abuzz. More at: LIVE Video: Tech Entrepreneur & VC Peter Thiel Speaks at #RNCinCLE. A Reuters/Ipsos poll of likely U.S. voters shows Clinton and Trump virtually tied (within margin of error).

•   Hillary chooses Senator Tim Kaine (D-Va) as her Vice Presidential nominee but VP pick greeted by blowback from progressive groups | WashingtonPost.com: "... several organizations, including some with ties to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the runner-up in the Democratic primaries, sharply questioned Kaine’s liberal bona fides, pointing to Kaine’s support of trade deals and regulations favorable to big banks. Stephanie Taylor, the co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, worried that Kaine’s support of a pending trade deal known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership [TPP] could allow Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump to “outflank” Clinton on trade." See also: New Leak: Top DNC Official Wanted to Use Bernie Sanders’s Religious Beliefs Against Him | TheIntercept.com: "Among the nearly 20,000 internal emails from the Democratic National Committee, released Friday by Wikileaks and presumably provided by the hacker “Guccifer 2.0,” is a May 2016 message from DNC CFO Brad Marshall. In it, he suggested that the party should “get someone to ask” Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders about his religious beliefs." The Democratic National Coronation Convention is in Philadelphia this coming week, July 25-28. UPDATE: #DNCleak #DNCleaks LIVE twitter feed

•  Turkey is in turmoil: "Turkey’s president is destroying the democracy that Turks risked their lives to defend."--Erdogan’s revenge | Economist.com.

•  Ireland Hits Brexit Alarm in Biggest Foreign Crisis in 50 Years | Bloomberg.com: "The prime minister is under pressure, economists are slashing growth forecasts and companies are warning of Brexit’s dire consequences. London? No, Dublin. The intertwining of trade and finance means no other country is feeling the fallout from the U.K.’s vote to leave the European Union more than Ireland." See also: Europe’s hedge-fund industry contracted for a sixth straight quarter "shrinking the industry to fewer than 4,000 funds."  As noted before on Domain Mondo, the EU actually needs the UK more than the UK needs the EU (which is why the UK, instead of EU-dependent Greece, will be the first member state to leave the EU): see UK Property Market Proves Resilient post-Brexit and One month after Brexit: what we know about the UK economy | FT.com: "little Brexit effect on [UK] retail sales growth" and ecommerce transactions "showing similar growth rates to those before the referendum." Markets in Europe since the June 23rd Brexit vote: UK's FTSE100 UP +6.19%; Germany's DAX DOWN -1.07%, France's CAC40 DOWN -1.90%, as of Friday, July 22.

•  FEATURE: IANA Transition & ICANN Corruption, Capture, and Control

"Any waiver of registry operator fees in the arbitrary and sole discretion of ICANN management and staff is an open invitation to graft, corruption, and kick-back schemes reminiscent of the FIFA scandals. ICANN lacks a comprehensive and effective conflicts of interest and code of conduct applicable to every ICANN employee, and ICANN may have already engaged in questionable, if not illegal, behavior."--John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo, Comments to ICANN Proposed Amendments to Base New gTLD RA (emphasis added).

John C. Coffee Jr., Adolf A. Berle Professor of Law at Columbia University Law School and Director of its Center on Corporate Governance, has written an interesting article, Adventures in Corporate Governance: Guarding the Internet | NewYorkLawJournal.com, July 20, 2016, about his serving as an advisor for the last two years to the U.S. Department of Commerce (NTIA) in connection with the "Obama Administration's efforts to 'privatize' the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)" or what is commonly called the IANA transition. Among his observations:

• "[W]ho is this "global multistakeholder community"? Ultimately, it is a strange collection of supporting organizations and advisory committees, populated by dreamers, cultists, ideologues, geeks and the Internet's largest commercial users (e.g., Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, etc.)."
• "The CCWG [Accountability] proposals largely dispensed with the business judgment rule and made everything appealable to a broad community of stakeholders. The key CCWG "reform" was the creation of a new body, literally called the "Empowered Community" ... Nothing in this structure strikes this author as optimal, and the efficiency loss for ICANN could be considerable."
• "Capture Through Corruption. If one wanted to capture ICANN on a single issue, or a group of interrelated issues, the most practical tactic might be bribery." [See also #4 Other Reading Recommendations (further below)--"spreading the cash" a/k/a "soft lobbying."]
• "Ironically, the one prospect that does seem unlikely under this new structure is ICANN's capture by a single government or a narrow interest group ... ICANN has been given so many checks and balances that it is difficult to imagine a hostile takeover. Nonetheless, symptomatic of the dysfunction in our political process, it is this least likely scenario that Congress may choose to debate."
• "If the question were whether ICANN's proposed multistakeholder governance structure is the best way to run a railroad, I would have grave doubts ... but it will be a fascinating test of "bottoms up" corporate governance. More importantly, [U.S. Department of] Commerce was probably correct in its key judgment: The proposed structure seems superior to U.N. control—and real hardball politics." (emphasis added)

•  Unwanted & Unneeded New gTLDs: WorldTrademarkReview.com on ICANN's Phase 2 Global Consumer Research Survey conducted by Nielsen: "... the real measure of how relevant new gTLDs are is surely the level to which people actually use them, rather than simply the level to which they are aware of their existence. And on this point, the findings look less positive for ICANN ... In total, reported visits to new gTLDs have decreased year-on-year ... people are visiting new gTLDs less than they were one year ago ...  By contrast, visits to legacy TLDs  [e.g., .COM, .NET, .ORG] were up across the board ..." 

•  Reconsideration Request to delay .WEB auction DENIED (pdf): Requesters, Ruby Glen, LLC and Radix FZC, submitted a reconsideration request seeking urgent reconsideration of ICANN’s decision not to delay the .WEB/.WEBS auction (scheduled for 27 July 2016) following ICANN’s investigation into alleged material changes in Nu Dot Co LLC’s (Nu Dot’s) application for .WEB. More information: Auction for 1 Contention Set [.WEB/.WEBS] Slated for 27 July 2016 | ICANN.org. UPDATE: see New gTLD WEB, Ruby Glen, LLC v. ICANN, Complaint & TRO Request | DomainMondo.com and New gTLD dot WEB 'Last Resort' ICANN Auction: and the Winner Is? | DomainMondo.com.

•  Dot AFRICA: ICANN and ZACR Appeals Consolidated "the parties’ joint motion (Docket Entry No. 5) to consolidate Nos.16-55693 and 16-55894 and to amend the briefing schedule is granted. The opening brief in No. 16-55693 has been filed. The opening brief in No. 16-55694 is due July 22, 2016. The answering brief is due August 19, 2016. The optional reply brief is due September 9, 2016."

•  Comments close this coming week at ICANN on:

• ICANN Fellowship Program Application Process Review Close Date 29 Jul 2016 23:59 UTC.
• Draft PTI Articles of Incorporation Close Date 31 Jul 2016 23:59 UTC.

•  ICANN Call for Expressions of Interest to Host ICANN Meetings in 2019 and 2020 | ICANN.org: "ICANN is actively seeking hosts for its public meetings to be held in 2019 and 2020 in Europe, Africa, Asia/Australia/Pacific, North America and Latin America/Caribbean. Those in the geographic regions are invited to submit expressions of interest for specific locations to hold the events." More information at the link above.

•  Q2 2016 Earnings Releases & Webcasts with coverage on Domain Mondo this coming week:

• Apple AAPL July 26
• Twitter TWTR July 26
• Facebook FB July 27
• Alphabet GOOG July 28
• Amazon AMZN July 28
• Neustar NSR July 28
• Verisign VRSN July 28

•  Five most popular posts (# of pageviews Sun-Sat) this week on DomainMondo.com:

1. News Review [17Jul]: ICANN Secretly Colludes With New gTLD Registry Operators
2. YAHOO $YHOO Q2 2016 Earnings, Webcast Monday July 18, 5:30pm ET
3. Burberry: British Luxury Fashion Retail, $BRBY UP 16% Since Brexit (video)
4. FTSE100 Hits New High on SoftBank & UK’s ARM Holdings $32 Billion Deal
5. LIVE Video: Tech Entrepreneur & VC Peter Thiel Speaks at #RNCinCLE

Most Domain Mondo readers this past week (top 3 countries): U.S., Russia, Germany

• 5 Other Reading Recommendations:

1. EFF Files Lawsuit Challenging DMCA's Restrictions Security Researchers | Threatpost.com:“... Section 2101 doesn’t make us safer. It impinges on researchers’ First Amendment rights to share vital research that could save lives and keep us safe in a world increasingly reliant on computer code ... If future generations are going to be able to understand and control their own machines, and to participate fully in making rather than simply consuming culture, Section 1201 has to go.”
2. Attackers launch multi-vector DDoS attacks that use DNSSEC amplification | CIO.com: "The domain owners themselves are not at fault and don't feel the effects of these attacks ... Attackers abuse open resolvers by sending a barrage of spoofed DNS queries where the IP source is set to be the MIT target IP. Most of these servers will cache the initial response so multiple queries are not made to the authoritative name servers."
3. Roger Ailes Resigns as Chairman and CEO of Fox News Channel and Fox Business Network, and Chairman Fox Television Stations | 21cf.com: "... It is always difficult to create a channel or a publication from the ground up and against seemingly entrenched monopolies.  To lead a flourishing news channel, and to build Fox Business, Roger has defied the odds. His grasp of policy and his ability to make profoundly important issues accessible to a broader audience stand in stark contrast to the self-serving elitism that characterizes far too much of the media. I am personally committed to ensuring that Fox News remains a distinctive, powerful voice ..."--Rupert Murdoch
4. Google, Trying to Endear Itself to Europe, Spreads Cash Around | NYTimes.com: "... Google has been staging a full-court press in Europe to finance everything from start-up offices to YouTube-sponsored music concerts, trying to remake its image in the region as it battles a mounting list of [EU antitrust claims] regulatory woes. Those efforts represent a campaign of “soft lobbying” where instead of, or alongside, paying registered lobbyists to advocate its case in the corridors of power, a company looks to change the minds of the public at large ... the company has ramped up its campaign in recent years, earmarking about $450 million from 2015 to 2017 ..."
5. Verizon is close to buying Yahoo for $5 billion as a ‘safe bet’ | Recode.net: "The plan is to combine it with AOL" but investors should read SeekingAlpha.com: "The telecom sector remains a defensive industry with muted growth prospects. The largest players in the industry, T [AT&T]and VZ [Verizon], return a significant portion of their free cash flow to investors via a quarterly dividend. The industry requires a consistent outlay of Capex to upgrade and maintain their networks often requiring copious amounts of debt."

Keep up with the Democratic Convention in Philadelphia this coming week, on Domain Mondo's election page.

-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo

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