Hello, FuckedCompany.com is "reporting" rumours that Register.com is buying out Tucows/OpenSRS (ee their front page).
This raises cause for concern. Tucows might not be able to comment if there are current negotiations, but it would be nice to see a denial if the rumours are completely untrue. In the event that it does happen, hopefully it will be "business as usual" from the perspective of existing OpenSRS resellers, with financial backing. My main concerns are the following: 1) Good customer support -- I'm hoping that the key management and support folks will be remaining in Toronto, and not shipped off to who knows where. 2) Canadian jurisdiction -- maintaining a registrar license in the name of the Canadian office would be great, for resellers who value the Canadian jurisdiction of law in the their reseller agreements. Given multiple registrar licenses, conceivably OpenSRS could give resellers a choice of jurisdictions for their clients, between Canada and the US. 3) Continued innovation -- adding more gTLDs and ccTLDs, as well as other products like email, DNS, and anything else that would help their partners to succeed. 4) A strong independent voice to counter Verisign -- Register.com hasn't done a very good job of countering Verisign's monopolistic and anti-competitive proposals, whereas Tucows has done a lot better job of formulating realistic proposals and policies that protect the "little guy". I'd be concerned about losing that voice, if they're just following the lead of Register.com. A merger/acquisition could make the combined Register.com/OpenSRS a formidable force, one that makes us all better off, so I'm taking a wait and see approach. Of course, given the source of the rumours, it could all just be complete BS. What are others concerned about, should this happen? I.e. why are you with OpenSRS, and not with Register.com today? Sincerely, George Kirikos http://www.kirikos.com/
