VeriSign Inc
- Industry
- Internet Platforms
- Exchange
- US
- Country
- USA
- IPO date
- Jan 29, 1998
- Employees
- 926
- Website
- www.verisign.com
Composite valuation range · conservative $180–$210 / fair $220–$270 / optimistic $285–$340. At $274.82, Between the fair and optimistic ranges.
At publication $295.65 (May 28, 2026)
Data from EODHD, shown in the reporting currency; for reference only, not investment advice.
VeriSign, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides internet infrastructure and domain name registry services that enables internet navigation for various recognized domain names worldwide. The company provides root zone maintainer services, operating two of thirteen internet root servers; and offering registration services and authoritative resolution for the .com and .net domains, which supports global e-commerce. It operates directory for .name and .cc; and back-end systems for .edu, domain names. The company was incorporated in 1995 and is headquartered in Reston, Virginia.
History
VeriSign, Inc. was incorporated in 1995 and is headquartered in Reston, Virginia, completing its IPO on January 29, 1998. Founder D. James Bidzos has served as chairman or vice-chairman since the company's founding and has held the role of CEO again since 2011. The company evolved into a focused internet infrastructure operator that provides registry services and authoritative resolution for the .com and .net top-level domains, runs Root Zone Maintainer services, and operates two of the thirteen internet root servers; it also operates directory services for .name and .cc and back-end systems for .edu. Its business model bills registrars (rather than end users) per domain registration or renewal, recognizing revenue ratably over the term, which produces highly recurring, prepaid revenue with very low capital expenditure; 2025 revenue reached $1.657 billion against capex of roughly $0.023 billion. The company has also accelerated share repurchases over time, with the basic weighted-average share count falling to about 91.7 million by the first quarter of 2026, a contraction of nearly one-fifth versus the roughly 113.5 million shares outstanding at the end of 2020.
Industry position
VeriSign operates the registry for the .com and .net top-level domains, a position with essentially no directly comparable listed competitor at the registry level. As of the first quarter of 2026 the combined .com/.net domain base was 176.1 million names, against 392.5 million total domain registrations across all top-level domains worldwide, giving VeriSign about 44.9% of global registrations. Its competitive moat rests on contracts, regulation, technical stability and scale: it operates .com under an ICANN Registry Agreement (renewed in November 2024 through November 30, 2030) and a U.S. Department of Commerce Cooperative Agreement, with .net running through June 30, 2029, both carrying presumptive rights of renewal. The company has constrained but real pricing power, able to raise .com wholesale prices up to 7% annually in the final four years of the six-year period beginning October 26, 2024 and .net up to 10% per year, and has announced a .com wholesale increase from $10.26 to $10.97 effective November 1, 2026. Operating reliability reinforces its standing, with the company reporting 28 years of 100% .com/.net resolution availability and a Q1 2026 final renewal rate of 75.0%, up from 74.0% a year earlier. Adjacent rather than direct competitors include GoDaddy, a domain registrar and small-business online services platform that provides back-end registry services for about 170 TLDs, and Tucows, a registrar and network-business mix; neither operates the .com registry, and VeriSign's largest customer accounts for about 31% of revenue.