VeriSign Looks Solid After ICANN Renews Management Of .Com Domain Names

VeriSign‘s (NASDAQ:VRSN) stock has been solid recently after a spate of good news.  ^[1] VeriSign, Inc. provides Internet infrastructure services to various networks worldwide and controls the rights to the exclusive registry of.com and .net Internet domain names. It collects a fixed fee each time individuals or businesses register a new .com or .net domain name, or renew the registration of an existing domain name.

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Two separate agreements for management of the .com and .net domains were renewed over the last two weeks between Verisign and the ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) Board. Verisign will continue to manage these domains for another 6 years. It has been granted the right to hike fees by 7%  in any 4 years of the 6-year contract in both cases. Its .name registry agreement is also up for renewal in August and is likely to be smooth sailing for Verisign. ((ICANN Renews .Com Agreement with VeriSign))

Additionally, applicants for 220 new proposed top level domains have signed up with VeriSign for its backend registry services, ever since ICANN announced the plan on June 13. The number of 220 is likely to dip, given that some of the proposed domains are generic and likely to be contested. Nevertheless, investors have reacted positively to the stock so far which has been on a consistent uptick. Verisign itself has also applied for 14 new top level domain names including 12 transliterations of .com and .net. ((VeriSign is backend for 220 new TLD applicants and applies for 14 itself))

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1. VeriSign Stock Hits New 52-Week High (VRSN) [↩]