Afternic as a Registrant Organization?

[Trent1000]

Hi namePros

I bookmarked a domain auction on godaddy some 10 days ago although despite my intention to get back to it, I missed the auction by a few hours. Quickly went to see whois, but of course that did not show me anything useful.

Few days passed, the whois still shows the same thing which is the following line:

Registrant Organization: Afternic, LLC - On Behalf of Domain Owner

What is that suppose to mean?

Afternic isn't a registrant organization if I'm not mistaken, that would be Godaddy.
Since the name isn't availble on Afternic nor Godaddy, and anywhere else either, I just don't get it.

Is it possible that there were no bidders, but GD wasn't going to let it expire, and they kept it in house under Afternic's control rather?

(It's not on closeouts either)

 

[topdom]

I think, registrant organisation is a registrant in organisation form instead of a person form. They are keeping domain under their control. They are the owner of the domain, for a while.

Registrant, registrar and registry are different things as you probably know.