That’s the question everyone is asking.
Pipex is the biggest beast in the .uk domain market, and as a result it has the most votes in UK registry owner Nominet. In fact, it has 1,041, which gives it more than 10 percent of all available votes and provides it with a veto over Nominet because for large changes, Nominet requires 90 percent approval.
Nominet had discussed its plans with all the big tag holders and especially the top three – Pipex, Fasthosts and Schlund (1and1.co.uk). All three, I am told, were fine with it but at the last minute Pipex and Fasthosts voted against the Board resolutions and so sent them crashing down.
Why? Why did they not only screw the company they have a very big interest in, but why did they do it at the last minute and in public?
It’s come as a bit of a shock to everyone that one company can wield so much power over a member organisation. You can be absolutely certain that not only the Nominet Board but also every other concerned member of the UK Internet community are now figuring out how to pull that power away.
And why aren’t Pipex and Fasthosts saying why they did it? I now have an official “No comment” from Fasthosts and I’ve still heard nothing from Pipex despite several phonecalls.
And then there is the tie in with some very strange things happening at Pipex as we speak. On Tuesday, Pipex’s share price leapt 15 percent on rumours that it was going to be taken over and a large share holder had been bought out.
There was another takeover rumour in Feb that BT was going to buy it out for £350m. The logic behind that was that Pipex had the only WiMax licence for the UK. This is a line that the main owner of the company has been relentlessly pushing – to his great financial advantage – but isn’t strictly true. It is only a temporary licence. BT was very cool about the rumours.
I have asked about and the growing feeling about financial journalists is that the rumours about Pipex are stemming from Pipex itself. Whatever the ultimate aim, the speculation is having a big effect. Today trading in the company is massive. Big share blocks bought and sold. Check it out through http://www.pipex.net/investors/shareprice/.
But back to Nominet: it’s somewhat ironic that a meeting called to free up the company’s ability to function autonomously – one which saw members complain that the old system protected them more – has seen the cold reality that one individual company can call the shots within the existing system.
I can imagine that the new resolutions, when they come, will not meet quite as much opposition.
