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.