Let’s take a look at PIR’s tax return.
It’s been a couple of years since I last looked at Public Interest Registry’s (PIR) tax return.
PIR’s golden goose is the .org domain name registry, and its primary benefactor is Internet Society (ISOC). Let’s take a look at the return from tax year 2021, which was filed at the end of 2022:
- $103.3 million revenue, up from $95.4 million in 2019.
- $62M grant to Internet Society, down from $67.5 million in 2019.
- $15.6 million fee to Afilias (now part of Identity Digital) for running the .org back end, down from $18.3 million in 2019.
Ethos Capital agreed to acquire the non-profit for $1.135 billion in 2019. ICANN nixed the deal, and Public Interest Registry remained independent.
Identity Digital (formerly Donuts) acquired Afilias at the end of 2020, and then Ethos Capital announced it bought Identity Digital (formerly Donuts) shortly after that. So Ethos got its hands on part of PIR’s golden goose, albeit the smaller and less profitable part.
