Is everybody aware that INA is about to list.

<snip from
news.com.au>                                                            

   Uni aims for $92m sale
   By NIC HOPKINS

   29oct99

   THE University of Melbourne hopes it will earn nearly $92.5 million
from
   the sale of shares in its domain name registry business, Melbourne
IT.

   The float, through JB Were & Son, will be the second-largest in the
   Internet sector in Australia, beaten only by the $160.8 million
initial
   public offer of shares in ecorp, the former PBL Online. 

   The initial public offer will cut the stake held by Melbourne
University's
   commercialisation arm, Melbourne Enterprise International, from 100
   per cent to 15 per cent. 

   It will raise $85 million and a small amount of new equity will be
   offered to raise another $7.5 million. Total market capitalisation of
the
   company will be close to $110 million after the float. 

   Melbourne IT operates as an independent commercial company best
   known for its division Internet Names WorldWide. This administers the
   .com.au registry and provides services in .com, .net, .org and .co.uk
   domains. 

   Internet Names WorldWide was first known as Internet Names
   Australia, which managed the .com.au registry. It is the third
largest
   domain space in the world after Germany's .de and Britain's .co.uk. 

   This year, INA was accredited by the US-based Internet Corporation
   of Assigned Names and Numbers to officially administer the .com, .net
   and .org domain names around the world, and it changed its name to
   Internet Names World Wide. 

   At present, the business has a monopoly in Australia and, while it
has
   most to lose when competition arrives, it is confident that the
   expansion of the market will be strong enough to ensure revenue
   growth. 

   It is understood the share offer values Melbourne IT at about 30
   times historical revenues and 4.5 expected revenues for financial
   2000-01. 

   JB Were has been road-showing the float to institutional investors
all
   this week. Deloitte Corporate Finance is also advising on the offer. 

   Some potential investors are concerned at the magnitude of the
   selldown, perceived in some quarters as "cashing in its chips". 
<unsnip>

Is anyone concerned that this story is occurring prior to any handover
to AUDA.
Obvious questions for AUDA and KRE are:
1)Will any NEW INA be obliged to hand over anything?
2)Will the board be obliged to act for it's shareholders as all other
boards are, and if so, why in the world would they be all keen to hand
the control for the .com.au and the WHOIS database over to anyone?
3)Will the .com.au be handed over at all?
4)Have we all lost/wasted our membership money because now there exists
little chance that a NEW LISTED COMPANY will be obliged to give away
it's best asset?
5) What safeguards have been put in place to ensure the .com.au will be
handed over?
6)What safeguards have been put in place to ensure the whois database is
freely accessible and available to auda and it's members?


Just a few questions from a concerned auda member ...

*Perhaps KRE could take 5 minutes from his very busy schedule and give
us his take on some pertinent issues for us all.
I for one would be very interested to hear his slant on things.

Bye.
Mike.