Undaunted by the recent experiences of Network Solutions Inc, rival domain name registrar Iperdome Inc, which looks after the little-used .per domain name is testing the waters by way of a ‘direct public offering’ to be conducted over the internet. Iperdome is trying to raise $250,000 via 1000 shares at $2.50 each, representing 10% of the company. Iperdome’s names are marketed as personal domain names, rather than corporate, educational of governmental ones, hence the .per extension. The move means that the small Atlanta, Georgia-based company is actually only testing opinion about an offering, which it is allowed to do under federal and state securities laws for what is know as its SCOR Form U7 offering. The first company to make an offering over the internet was a brewery from Boston, Massachusetts a couple of years ago. Chief executive Jay Fenello says the company needs the money for lobbying purposes to help get its names supported on more root servers, for marketing purposes and for improving the corporate infrastructure. There will be a period of uncertainty, he said, until confusion about who will run what top-level domain names and for how long is resolved although the US government recently vowed to bang heads together until the problem is resolved. NSI has the exclusive rights to the .com, .net and .org names through a federal contract that expires at the end of March next year. There are other small companies like Iperdome that register other names.
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