A private equity firm now runs .org, the domain for nonprofits

A private equity firm will soon run the internet’s top domain name extension for nonprofits after purchasing the nonprofit organization that runs it.

Public Interest Registry (PIR), which runs the .org domain registry, has been sold to private equity firm Ethos Capital, according to the registry’s parent organization, Internet Society. The price of the acquisition is still unknown.

The .org domain name has been maintained by PIR since 2002. Internet Society was awarded the contract by ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) and created PIR to run the extension.

Earlier this summer, Mashable covered the ongoing battle between ICANN and .org domain registrars and registrants after the organization that oversees the web domain system decided to lift the long-established price cap in its .org contract with PIR. Read more...