[At-Large] The .travel registry is likely to go out of business

[John L]

I got a note from the always interesting Ed Hasbrouck that led me to the 
latest quarterly 10-Q financial filing by theglobe.com, which owns 
Tralliance, the company that runs the .travel domain.  After a most 
exciting decade buying and selling a variety of Internet related 
businesses, Tralliance and .travel are now theglobe's only activity.

The 10-Q says that they're running through cash at about $500K per month, 
and the have only $480K in cash now, so they're about to die.  As the 10-Q 
says:

  We received a report from our independent accountants, relating to our
  December 31, 2006 audited financial statements, containing a paragraph
  stating that our recurring losses from operations and our accumulated
  deficit raise substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going
  concern. The Company continues to incur substantial consolidated net
  losses and management believes the Company will continue to be
  unprofitable and use cash in its operations for the foreseeable future.
  Based upon our current cash resources of approximately $480 thousand at
  May 4, 2007, management does not believe the Company can operate as a
  going concern beyond May 2007.

This crisis was precipitated by a $2.5 million payment to MySpace to 
settle a lawsuit due to theglobe sending several hundred thousand illegal 
spams to and through MySpace last year.  (Phrases like "mind bogglingly 
stupid" would be appropriate here.)  But they're out of money, and unless 
they can find someone to put in a lot of cash real soon, they're dead.

Incidentally, .travel has only 25,000 registrations, total.

I don't think the demise of .travel has much direct interest to at large 
users, since I don't know anyone other than me who ever even looked at a 
.travel domain, but this does point out that the same escrow issues that 
inept collapsing registrars raise also apply to registries.

R's,
John

PS: Read the 10-Q yourself at:

http://edgar.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1066684/000114420407024438/v074476_10q.htm