[ga] Commerce Dept. Has 'Concerns' About VeriSign Pact

[Bruce James <bmj@keyname.net>]

May 14, 2001

Dow Jones Newswires Commerce Dept. Has 'Concerns' About VeriSign Pact By PETER LOFTUS Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES NEW YORK -- The Department of Commerce has some "concerns" about a proposal to extend VeriSign Inc.'s (VRSN) monopoly on operating the central database of Internet addresses, department spokesman Jim Dyke said. Commerce department officials were scheduled to meet with VeriSign executives at 4 p.m. EDT Monday to discuss the concerns. Dyke declined to elaborate on the department's concerns, but said no final decision would be made Monday. "This meeting is not to notify them that they are receiving final approval," Dyke said. "We're just discussing the concerns we have." The Commerce Department is considering an agreement VeriSign reached last month with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN, a non-profit organization charged by the federal government with overseeing the allocation of Internet domain names. Under the agreement, VeriSign would exclusively operate the central database of names ending in .com through 2007 without having to divest itself of either its wholesale or retail address businesses. In exchange, VeriSign would give up control of .org addresses in 2002 and open the .net domain to competition in 2006. That proposal would modify a 1999 agreement that requires VeriSign to divest itself of the wholesale or retail unit in order to retain control of the databases for .com, .net and .org through 2007. Under the original agreement, VeriSign had until May 10 to sell or spin off one of the units. The Commerce Department last month extended the deadline to May 31 to give it time to consider the VeriSign-ICANN proposal. VeriSign has indicated it would sell its retail address unit, Network Solutions, if it fails to gain Commerce Department approval of the latest proposal. -By Peter Loftus, Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-5267; peter.loftus@dowjones.com

 

 

/Bruce