Richard Barnes wanted ISOC to get an endowment by selling .ORG. having .ORG is great for the nonprofits but really isn't something ISOC can leverage to support IETF etc.
I believe the registry contracts are bid out every few years. However it's a very difficult business with fixed prices that depends on lots of operational efficiencies.
Having .ORG was the endowment. Selling off something they don't/shouldn't 'own' is bullshit. They were granted an endowment to manage .ORG to use the profits to support IETF.
They simply outsource the backend and collect a large profit. It's not a difficult business at all. The margins are insanely good in fact. They're doing at least 60% if not closer to 90% I suspect on the actual operations side if they competitively bid out their backend.
Registry contracts aren't bid out every few years for the most part, that's a giant problem. Why Verisign has a monopoly on com/net.
I believe the registry contracts are bid out every few years. However it's a very difficult business with fixed prices that depends on lots of operational efficiencies.