Blog: Minds + Machines

I’m happy to announce that Minds + Machines’ parent company, Top Level Domain Holdings, has raised approximately $14.2 million (£9.03 million) in a private placement to new and existing investors. Top Level Domain Holdings is traded on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange.

The full press release can be found on the TLDH site, and is reproduced below:

Placing to raise approximately £9.0 million
February 10, 2012

The Directors of Top Level Domain Holdings Limited (AIM:TLDH.L), the only publicly traded company focused exclusively on acquiring and operating new generic top-level domains (“gTLDs”), are delighted to announce that the Company has today conditionally placed 109,468,353 new ordinary shares (the “Ordinary Shares”) at a placing price of 8.25p per Ordinary Share (the “Placing Price”) with institutional and other investors to raise £9,031,139 before expenses (equivalent to approximately US$14.2 million at current exchange rates) subject to admission (the “Placing”).

As previously announced, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (“ICANN”) has formally opened the application window under which organisations can apply for the right to own and operate a new generic top level domain. The application window will remain open until 12 April 2012. Under ICANN’s rules, applicants for new gTLDs must first purchase an application slot, or placeholder, for each application for US$5,000 each, which will then be deducted from each US$185,000 gTLD application fee.

The Company intends to use the Placing proceeds to provide additional working capital and in particular, to fund the application slots and subsequent fees for new gTLDs on behalf of itself and clients of Minds + Machines. The Company expects to submit multiple batches for application slots during the application window having already submitted for its first twenty application slots. In January, TLDH announced that Minds+Machines will also be providing the back-end registry services for the proposed new .BAYERN domain.

Antony Van Couvering, CEO of TLDH, commented:

“We are delighted that both existing and new investors have responded so positively to our plan. With a new cash balance of approximately US$25 million, no debt, and a public stock, we believe that TLDH is ideally positioned to participate in the new gTLD opportunity.”

Peter Dengate Thrush, Chairman of TLDH, added:

“TLDH management believes that the increased capital will allow it to increase significantly the number of applications it is able to make, allowing it to develop a wider, more diversified portfolio of names in multiple languages and scripts.”

The new Ordinary Shares being issued pursuant to the Placing will, on issue, rank pari passu with the existing Ordinary Shares in issue and application will be made for the new Ordinary Shares to be admitted to trading on AIM. Trading in the new Ordinary Shares on AIM is expected to commence on or around 17 February 2012.

Today Top Level Domain Holdings, Ltd., Minds + Machines’ parent company, issued a statement summarizing our view of the progress at ICANN. The full text is included below:

The Board of TLDH announces that the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (“ICANN”) has now released the fourth version of the Draft Applicant Guidebook for generic top-level domains (“gTLDs”). This is in line with the decision reached by ICANN’s Board of Directors at its Nairobi meeting in March where it resolved to focus on the full introduction of gTLDs later this year rather than implement an intermediate step by adoption of the expressions of interest/pre-registrations proposal.

As reported by ICANN staff during the Nairobi meeting, the draft guidebook is expected to be the last draft before the final guidebook which is expected to be published in October / November 2010, according to ICANN’s project plan. The new draft guidebook includes an expanded role for public comments on gTLD applications, as well as incorporating various measures to protect intellectual property as proposed by ICANN participants.

The new draft guidebook keeps in place the strict separations of cross-ownership and control between registries and registrars, placing significant barriers in front of registrars who wish to start new top-level domains. If this restriction remains in the final guidebook, the Board of TLDH believes that a number of potential competitors will find it difficult or impossible to enter the market. TLDH is unaffected by this policy and the Board of TLDH therefore expects that TLDH will benefit from this continuing separation between registrars and registries.

ICANN has also released other supporting documents in relation to the proposed gTLD application process, including a budget for the new generic top-level domain review process. The budget document is based on ICANN’s assumptions that there will be 500 gTLD applications, of which 5 per cent are assumed to fail the initial evaluation and a further 5 per cent are assumed to request voluntary partial refunds. Accordingly, ICANN’s budget assumes that 90 per cent. of all applications will proceed to either successful delegation, or in the case of conflicting applications, to an auction or other tie-breaking resolution.

The other few and mostly small changes in the new draft guidebook suggest that there is near-consensus among ICANN and industry participants and governments and that the application guidebook is near completion.

TLDH remains well-positioned to move forward with its plans for new top-level domains. The next meeting of ICANN will be held in Brussels from June 20 – 25. TLDH and its operating subsidiary, Minds + Machines LLC, will be participating in the ICANN meeting and will provide a further update following that meeting.

Minds + Machines’ parent company, Top Level Domain Holdings (AIM: TLDH), today sent out a press release summarizing our take on the recent ICANN Nairobi meeting from the TLDH perspective. The full text follows:

On Friday, 12 March 2010, at a meeting in Nairobi of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (“ICANN”), ICANN’s Board of Directors clarified and progressed further the framework for the introduction of generic top level domains (“gTLDs”).

The ICANN Board resolved that there should be no cross-ownership between domain name registries and registrars. This prohibition will prevent existing ICANN-accredited registrars from owning or operating new gTLDs, thus limiting the number of prospective applicants. This continues a trend of increasing the barriers to application for non-experts as ICANN adds additional requirements and restrictions to the framework for the introduction of gTLDs. TLDH is unaffected by this policy and the Board of TLDH therefore expects that TLDH will benefit from this continuing separation between registrars and registries.

The ICANN Board also resolved that ICANN should focus on the full introduction of gTLDs later this year rather than implement an intermediate step by adoption of the Expressions of Interest/Pre-Registrations Proposal. The ground rules for application for new gTLDs are expected to be published by early summer 2010. Accordingly, as ICANN approaches the point where it will be able to proceed with full applications, the Expressions of Interest (“EoI”) program becomes unnecessary. ICANN staff reported during the Nairobi meeting that the next draft of the Draft Applicant Guidebook, expected to be issued in June, will be near final, and subject only to a final comment period.

While we were supportive of the EoI proposal, we welcome ICANN’s focus that the main objective should be to speed up the gTLD process, and the intermediate step of EoIs is unnecessary if ICANN is close to resolving the final details prior to the launch of new gTLDs.

With our substantial cash resources, low operating costs and our significant interests in prospective applicants for .eco, .nyc, .berlin, .bayern and .gay amongst others, and also with the restriction on competition that has been placed on existing registrars, we believe that TLDH is well positioned ahead of the start of the gTLDs application and award process.

Following the ICANN Board meeting, Rod Beckstrom, ICANN’s chief executive, provided further details on the gTLD process, which is available on-line at http://bit.ly/buru8z.

Minds + Machines has been selected to provide registry services by Bayern Connect GmbH, which is pursuing the .BAYERN top-level domain name for Bavaria. We are delighted to be chosen by this very strong applicant.

The press release from Bayern Connect quotes CEO Caspar von Veltheim:

“We need a strong and stable technical infrastructure to take our place among existing top-level domains,” said von Veltheim. “We are therefore using the Espresso platform, which powers over a dozen country-code top-level domains, is used by ICANN worldwide to demonstrate security best practices, and can deliver domain names for Bavarians at a fraction of the cost of other solutions.”

Bayern Connect’s choice of Minds + Machines to provide registry services is a natural evolution of our increasingly close relationship with CEO Caspar von Veltheim, who has also agreed to serve as Director of Minds + Machines Germany. In addition to the technical expertise provided by Minds + Machines, Bayern Connect has secured funding from Top Level Domain Holdings, Minds + Machines’ parent company.

Bayern Connect has already presented its project to the Bavarian State Government, and has the support of major Bavarian businesses and institutions, as well as important cultural figures. Prince Leopold von Bayern, a long-time advocate for the preservation of Bavarian traditions, is serving as Senior Advisor. “With .BAYERN, Bayern Connect will give Bavaria a home on the virtual Internet,” said the Prince.

Responding to concerns from intellectual property owners, Bayern Connect is being advised by Dr. Andreas Schulz, a prominent intellectual property attorney. “Trademark owners are entitled to a fair and transparent system by which the domain names are allocated. I will help Bayern Connect develop policies that will assure this,” said Dr. Schulz.

As a Bavarian business, Bayern Connect will donate a substantial portion of the annual registration revenues to Bavarian charities and cultural organizations. “Bavarians will make .BAYERN succeed, and therefore we will give back to Bavaria,” said von Veltheim. Bayern Connect GmbH is based in Munich.

UPDATE Oct. 7, 2009 — It has been brought to my attention that there is an inaccuracy in one of the quotes from Caspar von Veltheim in the blog post above. ICANN does not and has not used Espresso to demonstrate security practices. In fact, ICANN itself doesn’t demonstrate anything. Instead, they work with a company called DeltaRisk, which used an older version of the CoCCA registry software (upon which Espresso and Espresso CC are based) for the demonstrations.

Engr Ndukwe Kalu, President of NIRA, the Nigerian Internet Registration Authority, died unexpectedly in Lagos last week. He was a member of CoCCA, the Council of Country Code Administrators, and was a strong supporter of CoCCA. “His humor, encouragement, suggestions and sage advice were welcomed by our organization, which had few contacts in the region,” said Garth Miller, Director of CoCCA, in an article on his passing.

Over the last 18 months he worked with CoCCA to bring the .NG registry to a stable and secure infrastructure. “We remember him for the zeal he has contributed to the activities of NIRA particularly the landmark achievement of full control of Nigeria’s domain name on May 13, 2009 leading to full local management of the registry ”, said Vice President of NIRA, Mrs. Mary Uduma. At the time, Engr Ndukwe Kalu said of the redelegation, “The attempt to obtain full control met with a lot of challenges because as a totally new entity the executive had to concentrate on putting in place the required structure and infrastructure that would sustain the .ng ccTLD.”

Local management of the .NG registry allowed NIRA to utilize the CoCCA registry platform, which is a fully automated EPP system. Enabling Anycast DNS ensured 100% uptime world wide, bringing the .NG registry up to par with other world-class registries. The .NG registry continues to thrive and is systematically opening up to international registrations. Under Ndukwe Kalu’s guidance NIRA set a goal to become one of the top 20 ccTLD registries by 2011 in order to “positively impact the Nigerian economy because with the development of the Nigerian cyberspace countless opportunities would be born for both the state and citizens.” More information about the redelegation efforts may be found at allAfrica.com.

Our thoughts and best wishes are with his family and colleagues.

Minds + Machines is pleased to announce that our parent company, Top Level Domain Holdings, has acquired a further 15% interest in DotEco LLC, which is pursuing the .ECO top-level domain in association with former Vice President Al Gore, the Alliance for Climate Protection, the Sierra Club, and the Surfrider Foundation.

Here’s the text of the TLDH press release:

On 27 May 2009 the Board of Top Level Domain Holdings Limited (AIM: TLDH) announced that it had subscribed for a 10.0 per cent. interest (on a fully diluted basis) in DotEco for a cash consideration of US$200,000 (the “Initial Investment”). The Company has agreed today to acquire a further 15 per cent. interest in DotEco for a cash consideration of US$200,000, financed from its current cash resources, following which its interest in DotEco will amount to 25 per cent. (the “Acquisition”).

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (”ICANN”) announced its intention to allow qualified parties to apply to own and operate new generic TLDs (”gTLDs”). DotEco, which is based in California, intends to build an environmentally-focused gTLD and entered into an integrated partnership with former US Vice President Al Gore and the Alliance for Climate Protection which supports DotEco’s efforts to raise awareness about the dangers of climate change. DotEco intends to submit an application with ICANN for the eco top level domain. The Company expects that the application and approval process could take up to 24 months. As DotEco is a start-up venture it has not to date prepared any financial statements.

When the Company made its Initial Investment, the Board anticipated then the Company’s interest in DotEco may well be diluted over time as DotEco raised additional capital in future. While there can be no assurance at this stage that the ICANN auction and application process for new gTLDs will proceed as expected or that DotEco will be successful in its applications, the Board believes that DotEco is well positioned ahead of the gTLD application process and its prospects, if awarded the eco top level domain, are potentially very attractive. In addition, the Board’s target minimum equity interest in gTLD applicants is generally 25 per cent. and the Acquisition therefore will enable the Company to achieve its preferred minimum equity interest level before any anticipated equity dilution by DotEco should its application be successful.

The vendor of the further interest in DotEco is Clark Landry, a director of the Company and founder shareholder of DotEco and who, as previously announced, has an interest of 24.87 per cent. fully diluted interest in DotEco. Accordingly, the proposed Acquisition is a related party transaction for the purposes of Rule 13 of the AIM Rules. The Independent Directors of the Company (being David Weill, Guy Elliott and Michael Mendelson), having consulted with Beaumont Cornish Limited, the Company’s nominated adviser, unanimously consider the terms of the proposed Acquisition are fair and reasonable insofar as the Company’s Shareholders are concerned.

David Weill, Chief Financial Officer said:

“Awareness is now building for the proposed .ECO domain in the international arena and we are pleased to have been able to increase our holding in ECO ahead of the application process formally beginning. We look forward to .ECO remaining at the forefront of the new top level domains expected to be launched in 2010.”

This summer the number of registrars on the Espresso CC platform, jointly developed by CoCCA Registry Services and Minds + Machines, has steadily grown with the migration of several ccTLDs onto the platform.

Recent grants from Minds + Machines have enabled the development of several gTLD desired features including: one-step EPP server, WHOIS server and key retrieval configuration; transfer activity reporting; one-click database back up; banded volume discount settings, and many other easy-to-use features for TLD operators.

The Espresso system is EPP-compliant; supports IPV6, ENUM, DNSSEC; allows shadowed domains to combat botnet attacks such as Conficker; enables IDNs (internationalized domain names); and supports and multiple language files (15 so far) allowing registrars to manage their accounts in their native language.

Minds + Machines, as CoCCA’s partner, is offering a fully ICANN-compliant version of Espresso for new generic top-level domains in 2010. CoCCA (the Council of Country Code Administrators) is a member-owned organization that provides services to ccTLD operators. CoCCA began as a cooperative of three ccTLD operators, .CX (Christmas Island), .GS (South Georgia), and .NF (Norfolk Island) on a quest to build a better registry platform and to share resources as a way of achieving economies of scale. The more members, the less each has to contribute toward development, attorney fees, and infrastructure. In four years CoCCA has grown 700% , with twenty-one members now sharing resources using world-class EPP technology.

On behalf of its members, CoCCA accredits registrars that agree to follow best-practice recommendations in the registry-registrar-registrant business model. We warmly welcome the most recently approved registrars, who are now able to offer to their customers registrations in CoCCA member TLDs.

Here are the newly-accredited registrars, in alphabetical order. Welcome!

• 3w Media GmbH
  
  




• Bizcn.com, Inc.
  
  




• Blacknight Internet Solutions
  







• BRS Media, Inc.
  







• cctldnames
  







• Communigal
  







• Cybernaptics Ltd.







• DomainClub.com
  
  







• DomainersChoice
  







• Domain Monster
  







• Domain The Net Technologies
  







• Domaine.fr
  







• Enom
  







• Entorno Digital S.A.
  









• Gandi SAS
  







• Larsen Data
  







• Maridan Internet
  







• Moniker
  
  







• Networking4all
  







• Niceweb.eu
  







• NovaGroup
  







• Oxwell
  







• Register.eu
  







• Reg.Net.ua
  







• Todaynic.com, Inc.
  







• Web Solutions ApS
  







• Webworkers Internet Consultants
  







• Xin Net Technology
  

Today, we’re very happy to announce the formation of Minds + Machines Italia, a joint venture with Massimo Ralli and the other the people behind DotRoma (English version here). Minds + Machines will act as the registry operator for Minds + Machines Italia clients, including Dot Roma, as well as ICANN application preparation services.

Minds + Machines Italia is our exclusive partner for the Italian market. In addition to .ROMA, M+M Italia will target new TLDs for Italian cities, brands, and for Italian generic words. In addition to the services contributed by Minds + Machines, both parties are investing cash in Minds + Machines Italia for sales, marketing, and branding.

Close observers will have noticed that Europe leads the way in publicly-announced new top-level domain efforts for cities and regions. Minds + Machines, with partners now in Italy as well as Germany, is well-positioned to take advantage of this trend.

Top Level Domain Holdings, Ltd., a major shareholder in Minds + Machines, today announced that it has raised 2.5M pounds (approximately US$4.1M) in a private placement.

TLDH is a publicly-traded company listed under the ticker symbol TLDH.L on the London Stock Exchange’s AIM Market.

TLDH is the only public company focused exclusively on new top-level domains. The London Stock Exchange’s AIM market is available to U.S. investors through major brokerage houses such as E*Trade and Schwab.

In addition to providing capital for growth for Minds + Machines, TLDH will use the new funds to invest in new top-level domains and as a reserve fund for eventual auctions at ICANN in case of contending applications.

One of our projects has been to gather and disseminate information about new TLDs, as well as about Minds + Machines and our clients. As well as this blog, we have two Twitter feeds. There’s a bit of duplication, naturally, but they each serve a different purpose:

• nTLD Twitter Feed — Comprehensive news feed of all news about new top-level domains — good, bad, or indifferent. This is *the* place to look if you need to see everything.
• newgTLDs Twitter Feed — Information about Minds + Machines. This feed echoes our blog feed and includes other updates as well.

Please follow either or both!