Avenue4 announced that its professionals have brokered transactions in 2014 and 2015 with a total value exceeding $74 million.
With more than 30 years combined experience providing legal counsel to the technology industry, Avenue4's principals have established unique domain expertise in the IPv4 industry, which allows them to drive transparency and professionalism in the IPv4 market.
Cofounded by Marc Lindsey and Janine Goodman, Avenue4 possesses a deep understanding of the current market conditions surrounding IPv4 address trading and transfers. Through a broad network of contacts within Fortune 500 organizations, Avenue4 has gathered a significant inventory of IPv4 numbers, with contiguous blocks ranging from /16s (65,536 numbers) to /9s (8,388,608 numbers) that are immediately available for sale. Leveraging this inventory and its reputation within the IT and telecom industries, Avenue4 is creating value for sellers and helping buyers make IPv6 adoption investment decisions that are not driven by the "artificial scarcity" of IPv4 numbers.
Understanding the IPv4 Market
Internet Protocol addresses, or IP addresses, are essential to the operation of the Internet. Every device needs an IP address in order to connect to the Internet, and then to communicate with other devices, computers, and services. IPv4 is Version 4 of the Internet Protocol in use today. There is a finite quantity of IP addresses, which until recently have been generally available (for free) through Regional Internet Registries (RIRs) – such as American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) ARIN is expected to exhaust its supply of IPv4 numbers before August 2015. After ARIN's free pool is exhausted, additional IPv4 addresses will only be available in the North American, European and Asia Pacific regions through trading (or transfers) in the secondary market.
The next-generation Internet Protocol, IPv6, provides a near limitless free supply of IP addresses from the RIRs. However, IPv6 is not backward compatible with IPv4, which currently dominates the majority of Internet traffic (as much as 93% of all traffic is IPv4). In addition to its low penetration globally, migration to IPv6 is costly – requiring significant upgrades to an organization's IP network infrastructure (e.g., installing and configuring IPv6 routers, switches, firewalls, other security devices, and enhancing IP-enabled software, and then running both IPv4 and IPv6 networks concurrently). As a result, many organizations are planning their IPv6 deployments as long-term projects, which means demand for IPv4 numbers will continue to be strong for several more years.
Supplying Choice
Avenue4 specializes in connecting buyers and sellers of IPv4 addresses, and currently has access to a supply of address space that is several times greater than ARIN's existing inventory. The availability of this considerable supply of IPv4 numbers provides organizations with a viable choice to support their existing networks while the extended migration to IPv6 is underway. According to network equipment giant Cisco's latest Visual Networking Index (VNI) report, only a quarter of global internet content will be carried using the IPv6 protocol by 2019. Some organizations will choose to migrate to IPv6 now. However, the prevalence of anywhere between 800 million to 1 billion potentially available IPv4 numbers in the IPv4 trading market provides adequate supply for several years – allowing network operators (and their customers) time to develop and execute IPv6 deployment plans that are appropriate for their businesses.
"The pending RIR exhaustion of IPv4 addresses has created significant confusion in the marketplace. We refer to this as 'artificial scarcity' because the widespread fear that IPv4 addresses are no longer available is unfounded," said Marc Lindsey, Avenue4's Cofounder and President. "The truth is that, even within just our clients' inventory, there are more transfer market addresses available than ARIN has had since the end of 2013. Our goal is to provide choice to organizations with existing IPv4 infrastructure investments until they are ready to transition to IPv6."
Expertise Needed
Organizations in need of IPv4 addresses can purchase from other entities with unused addresses. While still plentiful in supply, these types of transactions are complex and require advisors that understand the nuances of such deals. Successfully navigating these challenges to broker, structure and negotiate some of the largest and most complex IPv4 transactions to date, Avenue4 has emerged as one of the industry's most trusted IPv4 market advisors.
"Our experience has focused on providing the counsel and guidance necessary to complete high-volume transactions that provide buyers with flexibility and choice. Based on this, we believe that enterprises should feel confident in their ability to evaluate all their options before investing in significant capital expenditures that may not be in alignment with their overall business objectives," said Lindsey.
Avenue4 LLC specializes in the needs of sellers and buyers in the IPv4 marketplace cultivating those most likely to reach closure and structuring creative arrangements for large blocks of IPv4 addresses by matching buyers with sellers, identifying value enhancing arrangements and negotiating transactions, and facilitating registration transfers. Avenue4's leadership team has advised some of the largest and most sophisticated holders of IPv4 number blocks.
