Radix, which is one of the large players on the new gTLDs’ market, confirmed that it had taken over the .FUN domain’s Registry Agreement from Oriental Trading Company. Oriental Trading Company specializes in manufacturing goods for parties and is owned by famous investor Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway group of companies. At the time Oriental’s purchase was considered billionaire’s whimsy. However, the company demonstrated no-nonsense will when trying to win .FUN domain; in a private auction it surpassed such competitors as Google and DotStrategy.
However, Oriental Trading Company planned to use the domain as closed generic, solely for its own use. ICANN corporation though later forbade the practice of making general usage words closed domains. As a result Buffett and his managers clearly lost all interest in .FUN. Therefore, they gladly accepted the offer that came from Radix.
The price hasn’t been disclosed. The head of Radix Sandeep Ramchandani confirmed to Domain Incite that the domain would be open and anyone would be able to register a name. Radix already manages such domains as .ONLINE, .SITE and .SPACE, however, it can be highlighted that .FUN is the first three-letter domain in the registry’s portfolio. At the moment domain hasn’t been delegated yet, but the company hopes for Sunrise period to start before the end of the year.
