Off 7% of staff — ICANN lays

Non-profit faces $10 million budget shortfall.

ICANN is laying off 33 staffers, the non-profit domain overseer disclosed today.

That represents regarding 7% of the organization’s ranks of 485 positions.

ICANN stated it is facing a deficit of $10 million a year, thanks in part to sluggish domain name growth.

In a blog post, the organization stated:

This decision is part of a broader effort to evaluate costs and activities, focusing on resource management, ensuring operational efficiency, and achieving financial sustainability. Other key areas of focus include reviewing travel and meeting costs, optimizing the use of regional offices, exploring opportunities for greater cross-collaboration and process improvements across functions and regions, and evaluating ICANN’s fee structure to ensure it scales realistically with inflation.

That last line is likely to raise eyebrows amongst contracted parties and domain registrants. It suggests that ICANN might consider raising the “taxes” it charges on domain name registrations.

ICANN has faced deficits in the past and even took money from fresh top level domain name auctions to replenish its coffers.