VeriSign was founded in 1995 and currently holds the contract for maintaining the .com and .net domain extensions, as well as .cc, .jobs and .tv. Headquartered in Mountain View, California, VeriSign has over 3600 employees with annual revenues in excess of $1 billion (give or take a few million!).
To most Internet users, VeriSign is known for their digital security services, although in this context well be focusing on their domain name services.
In March 2000 it was announced that VeriSign had purchased Network Solutions for $21 billion dollars and at that time they became the new registry operator for two of the biggest domain extensions in the world – .com and .net.
Verisign has a contract with ICANN to be the registry for .com domain names, which was extended in 2007. They also manage two of the worlds 13 Internet root servers.
Although most domainers will never have direct contact with VeriSign, it is important to know that whenever you register or even access a .com domain name, that you are using VeriSign services.
Despite differing opinions on the company’s choices, policies and pricing (no surprise for a company of this size and power), the registry staff are extremely knowledgeable, helpful, and take care of the day to day needs of an accredited registrar very well.