VeriSign sells off domain registrar
VeriSign said Thursday that it is selling its Network Solutions domain registration business for roughly $100 million, but plans to retain control over the database that directs people to .com and .net addresses.
The Network Solutions business is set to go to Pivotal Private Equity, a Phoenix-based venture capital firm, in exchange for $60 million in cash and a $40 million senior subordinated note. VeriSign will also retain a 15 percent equity stake in Network Solutions.

VeriSign said it would not part with the .com and .net database it operates, which it acquired through its $21 billion buyout of an independent company called Network Solutions three years ago. That company consisted of two businesses--a registrar, which sells Internet addresses, and a registry, which directs people to Web sites.

It's giving up the registrar business, which has become essentially a commodity service in a field in which competition has been heating up. VeriSign rebranded the unit in January as Network Solutions after two years of operation under its own name and had been seeking a buyer for the business over the last several months.

What it's keeping is the registry, recently renamed as VeriSign Naming and Directory Services--and which operates in a field where the company still has a relative monopoly. The registry business, according to VeriSign, is the backbone of a global .com and .net domain name infrastructure that handles over 10 billion interactions per day.…

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