Today Verisign (VRSN) acts as the registry operator for .com and .net domain names. At other points in the company's history, they have also been a domain registrar and a platform for secondary domain name sales. Verisign bought their way into the latter two businesses, only to sell out for a fraction of the price.
March 2000 - Verisign purchases Network Solutions for $21 Billion.
October 2003 - Verisign sells Network Solutions for $100 Million.
Notably, the sale of Network Solutions was for the registrar business only. Verisign retained control of the registry business. The buyer turned Network Solutions from a fading registrar, into a profitable seller of multiple value added web services. In February 2007, the company was resold for an estimated $800 Million.
November 2000 - Verisign purchases GreatDomains.com for $100 Million.
June 2007 - Verisign sells GreatDomains.com for roughly $2 Million.
The buyer was Sedo.com, a global market for domain name sales. They changed the format of GreatDomains.com into an auction venu for high value domain names. Their first auction sold over $1 million worth of domain names.
Verisign, perhaps regretful of their continued failure to capitalize on the boom in domain names, will soon implement a 7% annual price increase for registry fee that they still receive as the central registry for dot com domain names. This registry fee actually makes up the bulk of cost of a domain registration. The price increase is effective this October.
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