Telephone database operator NeuStar is reportedly in discussions to purchase Foretec Seminars, a Reston, Va. company that has managed many popular high-tech conferences for such clients as The Internet Society, The International World Wide Web Conference Committee and the IPv6 Forum.
Based in Washington, D.C., NeuStar operates several key databases that administer telephone numbers for all of the service providers in North America. These databases make it possible for companies to keep their telephone numbers as they switch local service providers. A NeuStar subsidiary, called NeuLevel, operates the registries for the Internet’s .us and .biz domains.
Foretec is best known for arranging three meetings per year for the Internet Engineering Task Force, the Internet’s premier standards-setting body. Although Foretec has been providing these services to the IETF since the group’s founding in 1986, the IETF leadership has been unhappy with the arrangement in recent years and has been working to create a new administrative structure when its deal with Foretec expires in 2006.
IETF leaders informed the group’s members about the potential NeuStar acquisition of Foretec in an e-mail last Friday. The e-mail said that after the proposed acquisition “NeuStar would create a new, non-profit company with the intent of offering continuing secretariat services to the IETF.’’
The e-mail was sent by Leslie Daigle, who leads the IETF Administrative Support Activity Transition Team. Daigle said the team is “favorably inclined to consider a proposal for NeuStar for continuing secretariat services under very specific conditions.’’ These conditions include having NeuStar manage IETF meetings for a limited period of time, after which an open request for proposals would be issued. The IETF also is looking for more control over such issues as where its meetings are held and how its money is spent on events.
Since Friday, IETF members have sent dozens of e-mail messages to the group’s main discussion list with questions about the potential NeuStar/Foretec deal and other issues related to the group’s administrative restructuring effort.
NeuStar declined to comment on the potential Foretec acquisition.
NeuStar is a long-time participant in the IETF and has a stake in improving the efficiency of the group’s standards development work. Although its expertise is not in event management, NeuStar has extensive experience operating information exchange services for the communications industry. That work would be similar to the back-office work, including e-mail list and Web site operations, Foretec provides to the IETF.
Foretec President Albert Vezza didn’t return calls for comment.
Foretec is a spin-off of the Corporation for Network Research Initiatives, also of Reston, Va., which was founded by Internet pioneer Robert Kahn.
