Multinational ISP Offers $206M In Secured Notes Backed By IPv4 Addresses

CircleID reports that Multinational internet service provider Cogent recently announced that it was offering $206 million in secured notes (a corporate bond backed by assets). 'The unusual part is what it's using as security: some of its IPv4 addresses and the leases on those IPv4 addresses.'

All internet service providers (ISPs) give IP addresses to their users, but Cogent was among the first to lease those addresses independently of internet access. (Internet access customers normally require a unique address as part of their service.) Sources are hard to find, but prevailing wisdom is that they have over 10M addresses leased for about $0.30 per month, or $36M per year in revenue.
The notes are expected to be repaid in five years.

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