Maybe due to mergers, government contracts, the history of Arpanet and the internet and where the $ came from... :o)

HP has one and so did Digital Equipment. Then Compaq acquired Digital and HP acquired Compaq. Now look how many ip addresses HP has :o)


>I'd read that. But I think North America (ARIN) has enough to last another year or so. Interesting to see how many /8s were handed out to individual U.S Corporations in the early nineties (why, for example Ford Motors?):
>http://www.iana.org/assignments/ipv4-address-space/ipv4-address-space.xml
>
>>http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12306573
>>
>>Many of you probably know already that the old (currently used) Internet addressing system (IPv4) is running out of addresses. When the last addresses are used up, if a company wants to set up a server farm (say, for a Web site) there will be no other option than using the new system (IPv6), which has larger addresses. This system exists for several years now, but unfortunately, transition to the new system is way too slow.
>>
>>The specific news item is about IANA (the centry registry for IP addresses) being expected to hand out the last IPv4 addresses within a few days - to five regional registries. The regional registries will continue giving out IPv4 addresses for a while longer, until they run out of addresses. One current estimates for this event is September, this year.