In another twist in the Absafreemail.co.za domain name dispute, Nizaam Karjieker, who personally registered the domain that Absa intended to use for its free e-mail service, has sold the domain.
Karjieker says the domain was sold to a third-party who prefers to remain anonymous. He confirms that the anonymous party is not Absa.
The Absa Group has resolved the difficulty by announcing that it will use a sub-domain of the Absa domain - freemail.absa.co.za - instead of Absafreemail.co.za.
"To use freemail.absa.co.za has been our intention from the start," says Tasso Tsoukalas, GM for channel marketing, Absa Group. "In no way does it affect our service."
But Tsoukalas says Absa still wants Absafreemail.co.za as its own, and notes that it is "prudent and right that we stick to our guns on this". Absa will issue a letter of demand to Karjieker today.
Both Karjieker and Tsoukalas denied a rumour that Absa had offered Karjieker R750 000 for the domain. Karjieker says Absa had not contacted him as of this morning, which was confirmed by Tsoukalas.
Karjieker`s employer, Intekom, says he acted purely in his personal capacity when registering the domain name. The company denied that it had threatened to fire Karjieker should he accept money for the domain, but said an internal investigation had been launched into the matter.
"As an [Internet service provider] we do not condone domain name speculation of any kind," says Intekom marketing manager Chris van Zyl.
Share