Reston, Virginia-based Public Interest Registry (PIR) will not be acquired as planned.

Established by advocacy org the Internet Society in the early aughts, PIR is the nonprofit that manages the .org domain used by more than 10 million organizations. Back in November, the Internet Society announced that investment firm Ethos Capital was set to acquire PIR in a transaction that was expected to close in the first quarter of this year, but oversight body Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) blocked the sale of PIR to the investment firm.

ICANN coordinates the maintenance and procedures of internet systems to maintain secure operation. The nonprofit corporation had until May 4 to either approve or withhold Ethos’ acquisition of PIR, and ultimately denied it. To make this decision ICANN’s board said in an April 30 blog post that it reviewed documents from both parties, reviewed more than 30 letters from stakeholders and considered input from a public forum before deciding that the public interest of the .org and other top level domains should remain with PIR.

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