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Verisign Gets Out of the Registrar Biz, Keeps .com Registry

Posted by michael on from the overpriced-cruddy-service dept.

Perianwyr Stormcrow writes "Verisign shot off a message today saying that they're selling off Network Solutions to Pivotal Private Equity (a firm specializing in picking up and turning around 'under-performing' businesses.) Perhaps Sitefinder was an attempt at maximizing shareholder value for the sale."

3 of 238 comments (clear)

  1. Key point by Lizard_King · · Score: 4, Informative

    For those of you who don't RTFA, here is the key point from the release:
    When VeriSign acquired Network Solutions in 2000, it obtained two distinct businesses:

    - The customer-facing Registrar business is the world's leading provider of domain name registrations, and an industry leader in value added services such as business email, websites, hosting and other web presence services. The Registrar, which re-assumed the Network Solutions name in January of this year, constitutes the current Network Solutions business that is being sold.

    - The Registry business that is the backbone of the global .com and .net domain name infrastructure currently handles over 10 billion interactions per day, remains with VeriSign as a critical component of its business. This Registry business was recently renamed VeriSign Naming and Directory Services and is a core piece of VeriSign's Internet Services Group.

    Synopsis: selling customer facing biz, keeping registry infrastructure.

    --
    "My mother never saw the irony in calling me a son-of-a-bitch." - Jack Nicholson
  2. Re:It makes sense. by oolon · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Whats so bad about it? Ok off the top of my head.....

    1) I cannot turn it off.
    2) Its in English (not the native tounge of the reader).
    3) It breaks the autocomplete url functionality because every time I typo a url it is added to my history, where as they are not added when a domain is not found. Making the right sites harder and harder to find.
    4) Search engine is paid for adverts.
    5) http is not the only protocol on the planet, its just one port of many.
    6) Why does verisign have the right to the wildcard, surely this is a valuable commonity and should have been sold off to the highest bidder?

    James

  3. This business is really tiny by Animats · · Score: 4, Insightful
    The amusing thing, of course, is that running the registry back end is really just running a modest sized database and some DNS servers. The registry doesn't have to deal with end users, just other registrars, and that's all automated. If everything is working right, the DNS servers don't even get hit that often.

    It's only a "billion dollar business" because it's a monopoly and because it's been heavily hyped.