ICANN New gTLD Auction Sees .BABY And .MLS Sell For $6.4m
On 17 December 2014, Power Auctions LLC, ICANN ‘s authorized auction service provider, conducted a New gTLD Program Auction to resolve string contention for two new gTLD strings: .BABY and .MLS. Applicants for these strings were unable to resolve contention among themselves; thus their contention sets proceeded to auction, which is the method of last resort to resolve string contention as prescribed in Module 4 of the New gTLD Program Applicant Guidebook. Subject to payment of the winning price and meeting all other criteria for eligibility, the winner will enter ICANN ‘s contracting process to sign a Registry Agreement to operate the respective gTLD .
Six applicants participated in the auction for .BABY. Johnson & Johnson Services Inc. prevailed with a winning price of $3,088,888.
Two applicants participated in the auction for MLS. The Canadian Real Estate Association prevailed with a winning price of $3,359,000.
All proceeds from the Auction are being segregated and withheld from use until ICANN ‘s Board of Directors define a plan for an appropriate use of the funds through consultation with the community.
More Information
- Auction Results webpage: Auction reports on this page on the New gTLD Microsite provide additional information on bidding.
- Auction proceeds and costs: A detailed summary of the proceeds and costs of all auctions conducted through November 2014. This information is updated at the end of each month.
- Auctions schedule [PDF, 253 KB]: Subsequent auctions are scheduled to occur on a monthly basis throughout 2014 and into early 2015. Auction events are intended to resolve multiple contention sets simultaneously.
- General New gTLD Program Auctions information.
This ICANN announcement was sourced from:
https://www.icann.org/news/announcement-3-2014-12-17-en
