VeriSign, Inc. VRSN today provided a statement on the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s (NTIA) announcement of its intent to transition key Internet domain name functions.
Verisign shares are down over 5% in pre-market activity trading at just over $52 a share.
Here is Verisign’s announcement:
“”The announcement by NTIA on Friday, March 14, 2014, does not affect Verisign’s operation of the .com and .net registries. The announcement does not impact Verisign’s .com or .net domain name business nor impact its .com or .net revenue or those agreements, which have presumptive rights of renewal.
The NTIA announcement involves Internet functions that are entirely different functions from those Verisign performs under its .com and .net agreements. The functions performed by Verisign involved in the NTIA announcement have been performed as a community service spanning three decades without compensation at the request of the Department of Commerce under the Cooperative Agreement”
In the long run, yes, Verisign will be reconsidering these statements.