Verisign said late last week in releasing its latest earnings results that the department may not finish its evaluation before the company’s current contract expires on Nov. 30. Verisign said Commerce informed it earlier this month that both Commerce and the Justice Department are examining the agreement’s “pricing terms.” If Commerce doesn’t approve the contract before it expires, Verisign’s current contract will be extended for six months, Verisign President and CEO Jim Bidzos said during an earnings call last week.
in June, ICANN, who many believe are “in bed” with Verisign, approved Verisign’s contract to continue operating the .com registry.
The proposed contract renewal would maintain the current pricing structure, which allows Verisign to increase prices four times during the six-year contract by as much as 7 percent each time. The company, which also manages the .net registry, receives $7.85 for every domain name that is registered in .com by registrars.
Verisign has an uphill battle to convince the Departments of Commerce and Justice that it is entitled to increase the cost of registering .coms by 7% in ANY year, let alone 4 out of 6.
But industry watchers said that while the contract could undergo further changes, Verisign will likely continue to run .com.
“It is highly unlikely that the contract would be put out for competitive re-bid, as this would open up the possibility of a non-U.S. company receiving the registry contract and could well send Verisign hurtling toward bankruptcy as it has sold off other parts of its business over the past few years and is now focused almost exclusively on registry operations,” Philip Corwin, counsel for the Internet Commerce Association, wrote in a blog post on Monday. The ICA represents domain-name investors, website developers, and others. “Most likely are constraints on Verisign’s pricing flexibility, which could range from reducing the 7 percent limit to something less, reducing the number of times that prices can be raised, or even requiring Verisign to justify any future proposed increases to the DOJ before implementing them.”
If changes are made to the contract, ICANN would have to put the revised contract up for public comment, he added.
Verisign has been operating the .com registry since 2000 when it bought Network Solutions, which was given the first contract ever in 1993 to operate the .com registry and to provide second-level domain-name registrations to the public. Verisign sold off its retail registrar operations in 2003 but kept the .com and .net registry business.
While Verisign has a wide swath of the domain-name market with its operation of the .com and .net registries, that business will soon face new competition. ICANN is expected to approve hundreds of new generic top-level domain names over the next few years to compete with .com, .net, and the 20 other existing generic top-level domains.
However, everybody knows that . com is king and will only become more valuable and stable as the gold standard of domains.
\
Thanks to Juliana Gruenwald and the National Journal, and
thanks for “listening”
Howard
Verisign said late last week in releasing its latest earnings results that the department may not finish its evaluation before the company’s current contract expires on Nov. 30. Verisign said Commerce informed it earlier this month that both Commerce and the Justice Department are examining the agreement’s “pricing terms.” If Commerce doesn’t approve the contract before it expires, Verisign’s current contract will be extended for six months, Verisign President and CEO Jim Bidzos said during an earnings call last week.
in June, ICANN, who many believe are “in bed” with Verisign, approved Verisign’s contract to continue operating the .com registry.
The proposed contract renewal would maintain the current pricing structure, which allows Verisign to increase prices four times during the six-year contract by as much as 7 percent each time. The company, which also manages the .net registry, receives $7.85 for every domain name that is registered in .com by registrars.
Verisign has an uphill battle to convince the Departments of Commerce and Justice that it is entitled to increase the cost of registering .coms by 7% in ANY year, let alone 4 out of 6.
But industry watchers said that while the contract could undergo further changes, Verisign will likely continue to run .com.
“It is highly unlikely that the contract would be put out for competitive re-bid, as this would open up the possibility of a non-U.S. company receiving the registry contract and could well send Verisign hurtling toward bankruptcy as it has sold off other parts of its business over the past few years and is now focused almost exclusively on registry operations,” Philip Corwin, counsel for the Internet Commerce Association, wrote in a blog post on Monday. The ICA represents domain-name investors, website developers, and others. “Most likely are constraints on Verisign’s pricing flexibility, which could range from reducing the 7 percent limit to something less, reducing the number of times that prices can be raised, or even requiring Verisign to justify any future proposed increases to the DOJ before implementing them.”
If changes are made to the contract, ICANN would have to put the revised contract up for public comment, he added.
Verisign has been operating the .com registry since 2000 when it bought Network Solutions, which was given the first contract ever in 1993 to operate the .com registry and to provide second-level domain-name registrations to the public. Verisign sold off its retail registrar operations in 2003 but kept the .com and .net registry business.
While Verisign has a wide swath of the domain-name market with its operation of the .com and .net registries, that business will soon face new competition. ICANN is expected to approve hundreds of new generic top-level domain names over the next few years to compete with .com, .net, and the 20 other existing generic top-level domains.
However, everybody knows that . com is king and will only become more valuable and stable as the gold standard of domains.
Thanks to Juliana Gruenwald and the National Journal, and
thanks for “listening”
Howard
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