Events at Register.com

On the heels of the appointment of a new chairman of the board and the adoption of 'poison pill' plans to thwart a hostile takeover, Register.com fires chief operating officer Rajiv Samant.

by Erin Joyce www.atnewyork.com Managing Editor [October 30, 2002]

About a year and a half after joining domain name registrar Register.com as chief operating officer, Rajiv Samant has been shown the door.

The company said Tuesday that Samant, formerly an executive with Disney's Internet Group, had been fired.

Richard Forman, the president and chief executive officer, said he would assume the responsibilities of the position, which was created when Samant joined the company.

News of yet another management shakeup at the New York-based Register.com came one day after the company said it voted to adopt a shareholder rights plan to defend it in case of a hostile takeover. It also followed by a few weeks the appointment of Mitchell I. Quain as chairman of the company's board of directors to replace Forman, who had been filling the position temporarily.

Also swirling around the company these days is severe pricing pressure from a flurry of domain name registrars offering rock bottom rates for TLD registrations as well as hosting. This, in a marketplace where new dot-com companies looking for Register.com's services are a scant few compared to a couple years ago.

Before joining Register.com in late June of 2001, Samant was vice president and general manager of Disney Internet Group's Go.com portal, which it eventually shuttered. His work with Register.com included overseeing the day-to-day operations of the company and for implementation of operational strategies to grow Register.com's businesses globally.

Register.com recently announced it was ending some of its overseas initiatives and shutting down its Afternic subsidiary, which runs an auction marketplace for domain names.

The news of Samant's abrupt departure doesn't help the company overcome its reputation for recurring management shakeups.

In March of 2001, former Infogate Inc. executive Rene Michael Mathis was hired for the post of chief financial officer, making him the fourth person to hold the CFO post at Register.com between 2000 and 2001. In June of 2002, he was replaced by Jonathan Stern in the position.

Register.com said the shareholder rights plan is similar to defensive plans adopted by companies that may become takeover targets, but was not adopted in response to any current attempt to acquire the company.

The company said the plan is designed to deter coercive takeover tactics, including the accumulation of shares in the open market or through private transactions and to prevent an acquiror from gaining control of the Company without offering a fair price. The company said the plan entitles stockholders to buy one unit of a share of preferred stock for $32 and would generally be exercisable only if a person or group acquires beneficial ownership of 15 percent or more of the company's common stock.

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