On Thu, May 06, 1999 at 02:21:35AM -0400, Jay Fenello wrote:
>
> Here's one from the archives:
Ah yes, the famous "Jon Postel works with the Libyans" diatribe.
Here's something a little more relevant:
[full story at http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/990506/ny_asensio_1.html]
NEW YORK, May 6 /PRNewswire/ -- The following is being issued by
Asensio & Company, a member of the National Association of
Securities Dealers, CRD number 31742.
Three months ago, on February 8, 1999, Network Solutions, Inc.'s
(Nasdaq: NSOL - news) controlling, majority shareholder sold the
pre-split equivalent of 9 million shares of their NSOL common stock
to the investing public at $85 per share. NSOL did not receive any
portion of the $778.6 million that was generated from the stock sale.
The complete offering was sold by insiders and the entire proceeds
went to the selling insiders, less expenses. This insider-sales
offering was consummated just 18 days before the U.S. Government
designated ICANN, which was a major development in the NSOL contract
termination process. This event began regulation, not deregulation
as some analysts claim, of the DNS market. NSOL has failed to
disclose to its new shareholders that it became obligated to
recognize ICANN on February 26, 1999.
NSOL's Board of Directors and key management positions are
effectively controlled by insiders from Science Application
International Corporation (``SAIC''). Three of NSOL's most senior
managers are current or former SAIC employees and six of NSOL's eight
Directors are current SAIC employees. SAIC is a private company with
a reported 9,700 employees in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan
area. SAIC is engaged in government contract work with federal
contracts reportedly accounting for 80% of SAIC's revenue. The Wall
Street Journal has reported that SAIC has numerous former top
government officials on its payroll and that SAIC and its executives
typically make more than $100,000 in political contributions in every
Congressional election cycle.
NSOL's domain name business is entirely dependent on a federal
government contract. It could not operate its current business
without its government contract. This government contract does not
provide safeguards to protect registered domain name holders or many
other needed regulatory requirements. NSOL has managed to avoid
regulation for over 5 years and successfully turned a single
government work contract to administer a simple database into a Wall
Street windfall. NSOL is now legally obligated to recognize ICANN's
DNS regulatory authority. The U.S. Government has set a termination
date for NSOL's entire domain name contract, stated that the contract
will not be renewed and instructed NSOL to give up control of the
domain name registry. Eighteen days before the formal commencement
of this adverse government action SAIC sold its stock.
Today Asensio & Company, Inc. published on its Internet site at
asensio.com a copy of its letter dated April 28, 1999 to U.S.
Secretary of Commerce William M. Daley concerning Amendment 13 to
NSOL's DNS contract.
...
--
Kent Crispin "Do good, and you'll be
[EMAIL PROTECTED] lonesome." -- Mark Twain
