Hello,
I've been lurking on this board for a while, and have found that there are many posters here that seem to have a pretty good grasp of VRSN and the "Internet Trust" sector as a whole. I have not yet invested, but it looks as if I may soon. More of a pullback from it's highs would be nice, but seeing as I'm looking 3-5 years out, I don't think short term fluctuations matter much.
As far as the fundamentals, VRSN looks pretty damn attractive. Revenues increasing at an amazing rate, net income significantly stronger every Q, asset/liability ratio is phenomenal, coupled with zero long term debt.
My investment philosophy is to buy the gorilla in the sector in which I am interested. That is why my main holdings are Gemstar (GMST) with it's patents and licensing agreements for Electronic Program Guides (Guide Plus+ Gold, VCR Plus+, etc.), JDSU with it's 70% market share of optoelectronic (fiber)components, BRCM with it's 85% share of broadband chips, and QCOM with CDMA.
Looking at VRSN, it seems they have a dominant postion in their respective sector. But I'm not sure, seeing as I am not very familiar with the technology.
So, I was hoping that some people with time, and patience with a definite non-techie could help me out with some questions...
1) Is VRSN indeed the gorilla in their sector, in that they have significant dominance in their market?
2)What is their primary source of revenue, and is that revenue gained from one-time initiation of their technology in a system/website, etc., or does VRSN share in revenues with respective customers for a share of the income recieved? For example, does VRSN share in the revenue every time somebody buys a book from Amazon?
3)How much of a threat are competitors such as CHKP, NETA, ISSX, ENTU AND RSAS?
4) What is the relationship between VRSN and RSA Data (RSAS)? Are they in fact competitors or psuedo-partners?
5) What kind of barriers to entry does VRSN hold?
6)Are there any questions I'm leaving out because of my ignorance of the technology?
Thank you very much for any help, and I apologize for such a long winded post. If anybody has questions about my other holdings mentioned above, I will gladly blabber on for hours about those, and try to answer any questions you may have.
Much thanks,
Moray |
