VeriSign Disputes Naviant Claim

July 11, 2002 

VeriSign now is disputing a recent announcement about a new relationship with e-mail list giant Naviant, a deal that was positioned as a way to gather e-mail addresses from consumers and businesses registering domain names. 

Thursday afternoon, Boca Raton, Fla.-based Naviant retracted a press release issued by its 24/7 Mail unit earlier in the morning, apparently at VeriSign's request. Spokespeople previously had said the deal would mean Naviant would gain the opportunity to ask consumers and businesses that register or renew domain names with VeriSign whether they want to opt-in to receive e-mail marketing messages. 

Now, however, sources close to the companies say the announcement had been premature, while declining to comment further. Spokespeople from VeriSign declined to describe the nature of its relationship with the e-mail list firm. 

Such a deal would have amounted to Naviant potentially being able to add even more addresses to its already-staggering database of 39 million names: Mountain View, Calif.-based VeriSign's Global Registry Services unit manages upwards of 13.6 million domains. 

The announced agreement also included Naviant taking over 1.9 million B2B and consumer addresses from VeriSign. 

Details at: http://www.internetnews.com/IAR/article.php/1384181