December Online Auction: Next Steps

dotMobi would like to update the community on our efforts to resolve the issues relating to the Sedo auction that took place last December. We recognise that some people have been frustrated by the pace at which things have been moving, but this has been an extremely complex and difficult issue with many moving parts. That said, we are happy to report that significant progress has been made in the last couple of weeks.

We have now reached out to all of the auction stakeholders -- both the high bidders in the extended auction and those who received a notice in error as a result of the crash. We put a compromise proposal on the table and asked for feedback. Fewer than 10 of the more than 70 stakeholders rejected our proposal; since the proposal appears to have the support of the community, we are now moving forward with it. In the small number of cases where competing claims remain, we will provide appropriate assurances to the bidder entitled to the name under our proposal.

We will be contacting each bidder individually over the next few days, but the next steps will be as follows:

1. We have already delivered the authorisation codes for the names to Sedo for release in accordance with the proposal.
2. Each stakeholder will receive a detailed Agreement that describes the settlement, states our mutual obligations and releases claims arising in connection with the auction.
3. Sedo will release the codes once the stakeholder has faxed a signed copy of the Agreement to Sedo and wired the necessary funds to their Sedo account.
4. We will then begin to release the declined and substitute names to those who have faxed the signed Agreements to Sedo.

Clearly, the sooner people fax the Agreements and wire the funds, the quicker they will be in a position to register the names. And to participate in the allocation of declined and substitute names, signed Agreements must also be faxed to Sedo.

As we reach these final stages, we would like to thank everyone involved for their patience and understanding throughout this entire process. It has certainly been a unique experience with valuable lessons learned on all sides. The passion and commitment demonstrated by the community for .mobi domains has been extraordinary  and that is what excites us most as we draw a line under this chapter and move on.

Comments

[Paul G]

Thanks Caroline for the update and congratulations to all for finding a reasonable conclusion for most people affected by this.

[Holly]

This is excellent news. Thank you Caroline, and the rest of the team that has been working behind the scenes to resolve this in a positive manner, including the auction participants.

I am also hopeful that the people who did not participate in the compromise proposal are able to find a satisfactory resolution.

[AllKindsOfThings]

Glad to hear that things get sorted out.

Even if this is not directly related, it might be noteworthy that technical issues on running auctions happen elsewhere, too.

Even when the goods value is a thousand times higher that with .mobi domain names - like with the current auction on US 700MHz radio spectrum of the FCC (round 30 crossed the 19 Billion USD price tag) the auction can suffer from some hicups...

See: 700 MHz Auctions 'On Hold' at http://www.unstrung.com/document.asp?doc_id=144937

BTW: Are you going to present anything on next weeks 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona, and if so: Where and when exactly will that occur?

Best regards !

[Vance Hedderel, Director of PR and Communications, dotMobi]

As I mentioned in my blog entry at http://dotmobi.typepad.com/dotmobi/2008/02/somethings-in-t.html, dotMobi will be at the Barcelona Mobile World Congress 2008. We will be issuing good news on several fronts, but dotMobi isn't holding any specific presentations. But if you're there, drop by to see us in Hall 7, booth 7H49.

[Pooptooth]

I am very happy to give up this blog topic. I wish the "fewer than ten" well in their ventures.

[Joseph]

Congrats on the launch of DeviceAtlas

Why should people pay for DeviceAtlas when WURFL is free?

Thanks.

Joseph

[Domisfera]

Dear Caroline,

When all this process had been finished, will dotmobi publish what domains have been sold and his final prices?

[Caroline Greer]

Joseph,

We will be posting a more detailed article on DeviceAtlas very shortly but the simple answer to your query on the cost is that a very small, nominal fee will be charged for access to updates in order to fund the ongoing investment in and maintenance of the product. dotMobi is offering a supported product, with a wide range of industry contributors.

As regards publishing a list of domains and final prices arising from the December auction / settlement, this is not something that dotMobi has done in the past and there are no plans to do so.

[Chris]

Thanks for the great fix, keep up the good work!

[auction fan]

This is a great post. please keep us posted .

[Caroline Greer]

I am happy to report that everything in connection with the December auction has now been resolved. The auction domains and any domains that were part of the Re-Allocation and Substitution processes have all been transferred.