According to TheStreet.com, the most famous stock investor on earth, Warren Buffet’s company Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) has purchased 3,685,700 shares of Verisign (VRSN).
At the closing price of Verisign yesterday he investment represents around $165 Million dollars or about the size of the investment Marchex made in the purchase of Yung Ye’s domain name portfolio some 8 years ago.
We told you that more money is going to come into the domain industry than ever before, here is another $165 Million dollar example.
coincidentally I received a survey from Verisign yesterday with questions entirely focused on “domaining”, the reward was a 25 USD amazon gift card, I guess my point is that they are willing to pay for Industry ‘ information
fantastic news Mike, and yes only the beginning. Still time to act instead of wish you did later IMO but the WOO is here now and will close in time.
As Rick S. said yesterday you can expect to hear the ghost of future domain investors blaming those of us who are investing in GTLD era now for getting in first. SAD
when I read the first part of Michaels title – I too thought the exact same – DejaVuAllOverAgain.com 🙂
wouldn’t jump the gun here. 1st, Buffet didn’t actually make the decision, it was one of the portfolio managers within Berkshire Hathaway investments. These managers don’t need approval from him to make trades. 2nd, the amount investment is very small and doesn’t amount to much of total Bershires value. Buffet probably doesn’t even know what a domain is 🙂
Domain
Its a glass half empty half full argument.
I have no idea of what the procedure is for evaluating an investment for Berkshire Hathaway or who is involved or not involved in that determination .
We can say that this is the 1st time this company has invested into Verisign and we can also say that since Verisign’s only business is that of a domain name registry someone over there is quite familiar with the business of Verisign and what a domain name is
Compared to the domain industry, he must love ketchup, since he just made a $23.3 billion deal to buy Heinz. 😉
Nice investment! But small investment for his statue!
Hopefully he does better than he did with Myspace!
He also made a HUGE investment in Kepchup this week!
28 billion dollars for Heinz
http://business.time.com/2013/02/15/why-warren-buffett-loves-ketchup-plain-and-simple/
I do not think he has a sleeze ObamaAngle on the Heinz one – time for him to get out – just the Pope – at a certain age maybe the brain becomes Ketchup ?
Mike Verisign is just not in the domain business.
Authentication Partner Programs
Authentic Document IDs for BREW®
CableLabs Device Certificates
Code Signing
Code Signing Certificates for Adobe® AIR™
Code Signing Certificates for Microsoft® Authenticode®
Code Signing Certificates for Microsoft® Office/VBA
Code Signing Certificates for Windows® Phone
Code Signing Certificates for Windows® Phone Private Enterprise
Code Signing for Android
Code Signing Partner Programs
Device Certificate Services
Digital IDs for Secure Email
DOD Interoperability
Extended Validation Code Signing
Financial SSL Certificates
Government Authentication
HSPD-12 Solution
Identity and Authentication Services
Managed PKI for SSL Intranet Certificates
Managed PKI for SSL Services
Managed PKI Service
National PKI Solutions
Non-Federal Shared Service Provider PKI
Processing Center PKI
Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) Solutions
Secure Site
Secure Site Pro
Secure Site Pro with EV
Secure Site with EV
SSL Certificates
SSL for Small Businesses
SSL for the Enterprise
SSL Partner Programs
Symantec Certificate Intelligence Center
Symantec™ Validation and ID Protection Service (VIP)
Two-Factor Authentication
Symantec™ Safe Site
VIP Credential
Wireless LAN Certificates
WiMAX Authentication Service
Verisign owns the internet!
@BrianWick lol. i am guessing that he has hit his top. like the broad markets are close to make major tops. signs of time.
But he will NEVER invest or buy an actual domain name…
I would rather invest in GoDaddy than buy an actual domain name…HUGE Difference!!!
Buffet loves “durable competitive advantages” (or “wide moats” as he puts it). And Verisign has a big one. .COM locked up in perpetuity with a baked in 7% per price increase? In today’s environment of ZIRP forever, this is better than the traditional “risk free rate” of T-bills (which most antiquated business textbooks from the 90’s peg at 6%), one could almost make the argument that it’s better than cash.
So Mark Jeftovic –
“.COM locked up in perpetuity with a baked in 7% per price increase”
I am pretty sure Verisign has just signed a deal with “no registrar hard cost price increases” for several years – likely for antitrusts reasons – albeit if “.com somehow becomes a significant lesser player” during that contract time Verisign has the right to charge “market” value for renewals – how did that all work out for .tv owners ?
The real reason for the Buffet deal: the Buffet investment in Verisign is no different than the Geeorge Soros divesture of Gold today – the glee club lib shit is not holding in the quick sand they helped create anymore – now it is time to firmly stroke the conservative politicians 🙂
Mark
Verisign had to give up future rate hikes in its new 6 year contract.
So it doesn’t get to increase the price at all of a .com for the next 6 years (except for exceptional circumstances and agreed to by the Dept of Commerce)
Of course if Warren was REALLY smart he would have bought the shares at $27 seven months ago
Daily
Verisign sold its Cert business to in 2010
http://www.symantec.com/about/news/release/article.jsp?prid=20100519_01
@Michael
Doh! I completely forgot about that. It makes less sense now to me. As for why he didn’t buy months ago I do know he typically doesn’t try to “time” things, he just does his calculations on intrinsic value and if he can buy for at least a 30% or so “margin of safety” he’ll do it.
Having said that, it looks less compelling now (especially as you note, after such a strong run up)
Harika bir yatırım..!
(A great investment ..!) translated from Turkish