October 12, 2000

 

Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers

ICANN New TLD Applications Department

Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)

4676 Admiralty Way, Suite 330

Marina del Rey, CA 90292

USA

 

Phone:  1-310-823-9358

FAX:  1-310-823-8649

Email: icann@icann.org

 

RE:       Application by Affinity Internet, Inc. (“Affnity”) to be Registry Operator of .biz and Related TLD Names (the “Application”)

 

To Whom It May Concern:

 

            This letter is provided to you in support of Item D.13.4.4 of the Application.  I am the Chief Financial Officer of Affinity.  Affinity’s business has been in operation since 1996. Affinity is a privately held company that is not publicly registered under the U.S. securities laws, and therefore does not have audited public financials for release.  Further, Affinity has entered into confidentiality agreements with its institutional investors, the provisions of which restrict the ability of Affinity to reveal certain non-public information. However, this letter is provided to you to enable your assessment of  the financial integrity and backing of Affinity in its role as a registry operator of the “.biz” and related top level domain names described in the Application. 

 

            Affinity was organized in 1999 with the mission to build a major provider of domain, registrar, web hosting and application services to small- and medium-sized businesses on the internet.  Affinity, being privately held, does not have audited financial statements available for public release.

 

            Affinity obtained equity financing commitments for approximately $60 million from a group of investors in 1999, including the following:  J.P. Morgan Investment Corporation, First Union Capital Partners, Inc., Columbia eBiz Partners, LLC and the law firm of Morrison & Foerster.  Approximately $45 million of this commitment has been called and paid-in as of the date of this letter.  The primary use of the capital called to date was to make acquisitions of existing web hosting and registration companies, as more fully described in the Application.

 

            In addition to Affinity’s revenue and equity funding, Affinity has been provided significant credit lines by a number of its vendors, including Cisco Systems, EMC and Sun Microsystems, and a major financial institution.  These lines represent further sources of liquidity for working capital and investment needs of Affinity.

 

Affinity and its acquired companies have registered approximately 150,000 domain names, and hosts approximately 40,000 web-sites.  In addition to making Affinity one of the world’s leading internet hosting companies, this customer base provides a significant revenue base for Affinity’s future expansion and investment.   Affinity’s operations presently provide Affinity with significant operating revenues and cash-flow.  This cash-flow, combined with the equity commitments described in the previous paragraph, should, in the view of management, provide sufficient financial resources to Affinity to invest in and operate the “.biz” and related name registries, should Affinity and its partners be awarded the requested TLDs.

 

            Given the current state of our business and our financial resources as described above, we are fully confident of our ability to finance and support the new .biz registry. 

 

 

Sincerely,

 

AFFINITY INTERENT, INC.

 

 

 

Stuart Shelly

Chief Financial Officer