Network Solutions to expand Indian business-Teams up with SIFY and others
Friday February 18, 6:23 am Eastern Time
BOMBAY, Feb 18 (Reuters) - Internet address registrar Network Solutions Inc (NasdaqNM:NSOL - news) is considering several options to expand its business in India including acquiring companies in the Internet business, a senior official told Reuters on Friday.
``What we are looking at is what are the best opportunities for Network Solutions in India. Should we take an equity position in the company or may be a joint venture or may be open a small sub-office now. We are looking at those options,' Gary Hayward, vice-president, sales and strategic partnerships said.
``If there is a company in India that has a good idea or a very good value add, we will be happy to work with them,' he added.
The Herndon, Va.-based Network Solutions is the world's largest domain registration company with more than 8.1 million net registrations.
The company registers ``.com.' ``.org' and ``.net' Web addresses worldwide both directly and through appointed channel partners.
The company is also the exclusive registry for all .com, .org and .net until 2003.
The company has teamed up with nine Indian firms including India's largest Internet service provider Satyam Infoway (NasdaqNM:SIFY - news) to help Indian Internet users register web addresses.
Hayward said the Internet boom in India had pushed the country among the top eight countries in the world for gross domain name registrations in 1999.
India ranks fourth in Asia Pacific region behind Australia, Korea and China and ahead of Japan, he added.
Hayward said the general perception that most of the popular names have been used in the domain name chase, is not correct.
``Most of the three characters, four characters names are gone, but you can buy upto 63 character,' he said.
``It is not saturated. Mathematically the number of domain names available now is like 36 to the power of 63,' he added. |
