2018-10-25

Verisign $VRSN Q3 2018 Earnings, LIVE Webcast Oct 25, 4:30pm EDT

$VRSN
UPDATE: VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ: VRSN) (domain: Verisign.com), registry operator of top-level domains (TLDs), including gTLDs .COM and .NET, and an internet security services provider, released earnings for the third quarter, Q3 2018, at approximately 4:05 p.m. EDT Thursday, Oct 25, 2018.

UPDATE: Earnings Results (pdf) excerpts--GAAP EPS of $1.13, revenue of $305.78M (+4.6% Y/Y):
Third Quarter GAAP Financial Results VeriSign, Inc. and subsidiaries (“Verisign”) reported revenue of $306 million for the third quarter of 2018, up 4.6 percent from the same quarter in 2017. Verisign reported net income of $138 million and diluted earnings per share (diluted “EPS”) of $1.13 for the third quarter of 2018, compared to net income of $115 million and diluted EPS of $0.93 for the same quarter in 2017. The operating margin was 63.8 percent for the third quarter of 2018 compared to 61.9 percent for the same quarter in 2017.
On Oct. 24, 2018, Verisign entered into an agreement with NeuStar, Inc. (“Neustar”) to sell the rights, economic benefits, and obligations, in all customer contracts related to its Security Services business. The transaction includes the sale of customer agreements related to Verisign’s Distributed Denial of Service Protection, Managed Domain Name System (“DNS”), DNS Firewall, and Recursive DNS services. Verisign will retain its proprietary technology, network assets, critical infrastructure, software, and public DNS service to focus solely on supporting Verisign’s core mission: ensuring the security, stability, and resiliency of our core infrastructure. As part of the transaction, Verisign will continue to support the Security Services customers during the transition to Neustar, pursuant to a transition services agreement that is expected to be executed at closing. The transaction is subject to customary regulatory approval and is expected to close shortly following the receipt of such approval. The purchase price, subject to a cap of $120 million, consists of a payment of $50 million, due at the time of closing, plus an additional contingent amount, due after the first anniversary of closing. The additional contingent amount, which cannot be negative, is based upon, among other things, the successful transition of customers to Neustar during the 12-month period following closing. In commenting on the transaction, Jim Bidzos added: “Verisign is committed to focusing on its core mission of providing critical internet infrastructure, including Root Zone management, operation of 2 of the 13 global internet root servers, operation of .gov and .edu, and authoritative resolution for the .com and .net top-level domains, which support the majority of global ecommerce. For this reason, Verisign is transitioning its Security Services customers to Neustar.” (emphasis added)
Excerpts from the conference call [slides and transcript]:
  • Verisign is in negotiations to extend the Cooperative Agreement with NTIA and believes these negotiations will result in an extension agreement before Nov 30, 2018. Details to be finalized and Verisign could not disclose anything further.
  • Nothing to report re: new gTLD .WEB ("on hold" at ICANN).
  • Excerpts from the slides below. See also SEC 10-Q.

On Thursday, Oct 25, 2018, at 4:30 p.m. EDT, Verisign's management held the Q3 2018 earnings conference call that was webcast LIVE at investor.verisign.com. Replay available at the same website.

The conference call was also accessible by direct dial at (888) 676-VRSN (U.S.) or (786) 789-4776 (international), conference ID: Verisign.  An audio archive of the call will be available at https://investor.verisign.com/events.cfm.


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