Verisign is up big for the 2nd day in a row on rumors that it maybe in play to be bought out.
Yesterday Chief Financial Officer Brian Robins cancelled a planned appearance at a financial conference organized by Citigroup Inc which sparked a rumor that the company maybe a buyout target.
At the time Verisign was trading down to around $29 a share but wound up over $2 a share yesterday and is up over $2 again today to 34.20 so basically a $5 jump in less than 2 days.
Forbes.com, is reporting that “VeriSign shares are trading sharply higher in a down market on takeover speculation after the company reportedly cancelled a planned appearance today at the Citigroup Global Technology Conference.”
“We believe the consensus view for at least a year has been that VeriSign, following numerous divestitures, could attract interest from private equity investors,” he writes in a research note. “We think that makes sense. VeriSign has achieved, in our opinion, a lean business strategy emphasizing the DNS directory assets and the potential for predictable growth in cash flows. As a focused directory business, we also believe returns to scale and potential incremental operating margin remain significant. We like the timing with an era of new top level domains driven by entrepreneurs getting underway in 2011-13 under the guidance of regulator ICANN.”
However Bloomberg.com is reporting that the cancellation of the appearance is boosting shares not because of any buyout rumor but because the cancellation indicates a new CEO is about to be named.
Verisign did report today that it purchase the building its headquarters are in for $118 million.
We will keep you updated.
Not that it is relevant but the Forbes article links to a press release that is dated from last year.
Strickling’s letter to ICANN mid-June, with input from the DOJ Antitrust division, put the damper on Verisign’s designs to eliminate price caps on gTLDs.
Now that Verisign’s grand plan is squashed, it’s interesting to watch its stock decline, besides this rumor that it might be up for sale!
Lawrence Strickland’s June letter to ICANN, with commentary by the DOJ Anti-Trust Division, put the damper on Verisign’s designs to eliminate price caps on gTLDs through vertical integration of Registry/Registrar.
Now that Verisign’s grand plan is squashed, it’s interesting to watch its stock decline, plus hear this rumor that it might be up for sale!
It can’t be SilverLake Partners, KKR, or TVC, the private equity companies who went into partnership with Godaddy. That would be like sidestepping the vertical integration restriction.
It should be obvious to the casual domainer what is happening.
http:// reboot. fcc. gov/blog?categoryId=139699
“Third, consumers and innovators have a right to a level playing field. No central authority, public or private, should have the power to pick winners and losers on the Internet; that’s the role of the commercial market and the marketplace of ideas.”
Will Verisign say good-bye to ICANN ?
now we know why their ceo recently resigned?
“Lawrence Strickland’s June letter to ICANN, with commentary by the DOJ Anti-Trust Division, put the damper on Verisign’s designs…”
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Verisign and .COM did not just happen. They did not fall from the sky.
The smart money is running as fast as they can from the ICANN 900 lb Gorilla and the THREE 9000 lb machines they created
Most people’s Internet will come from the end of a gun – enjoy