Network solutions Q1 registered names jump
Reuters Story - April 22, 1999 07:53
HERNDON, Va., April 22 (Reuters) - Network Solutions Inc., whose monopoly over the registration of Internet addresses will end as soon as next week, said on Thursday it registered a record 922,000 of the so-called domain names in the first quarter.
The number of domain names shot up 171 percent from the first quarter 1998 total of 340,000 names and up 49 percent from the fourth quarter 1998 total of 621,000, the company said.
Net registrations grew 127 percent to 4.2 million on March 31 from nearly 1.9 million on March 31 a year earlier. In the first quarter of 1999, the number of net new international registrations in .com, .net and .org totaled 230,000, up 135 percent from the first quarter 1998 total of 98,000. All told, Network Solutions, has registered nearly 80 percent of the world's Internet addresses.
The company also reported financial results for the first quarter. Network Solutions said it earned $4.8 million, or 14 cents a diluted share on $38.1 million revenue. That compares with net income of $2 million, or 6 cents a diluted share, on revenue of $16.5 million a year earlier.
The U.S. government granted Network Solutions a sole control over assigning Internet addresses easily recognized by their .com, .org, .net and .edu suffixes.
But in an orderly break procedure, that came to an end Wednesday when a U.S. government sanctioned nonprofit organization chose five companies -- America Online Inc., the Internet Counsel of Registrars, a U.S.-based group of small Internet registry firms, France Telecom's Oleane's and Melbourne IT, an Australian technology services provider -- as the first group to compete with Network Solutions. Some 29 companies will enter the pool in June.
But Network Solution will not be pushed out of the picture. The terms of the break-up require each of the new companies will pay Network Solutions a one-time fee of $10,000 fee and $9 per year per name.
Meanwhile, Network Solutions has been preparing for the break-up has entered into agreements with such companies as American Express Co. , and Internet security software maker VeriSign Inc. and network service provider MindSpring Enterprises Inc.
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