VeriSign wins back .net registry

March 2005

VeriSign has won the battle over the .net registry, reclaiming the five million Internet domains as its own.

The decision announced late last night by ICANN will see it and the monster company "promptly enter negotiations... to reach a mutually acceptable registry agreement".

The approval follows an independent evaluation by Telcordia which saw VeriSign just edge Sentan on points, with Afilias, Denic and CORE++ coming next in that order.

The Telcordia group contained a number of people with close ties to VeriSign, but to suggest foul play would be unfair - VeriSign was always the frontrunner and since it already runs the .net registry, the decision to re-award it to the company will mean the least hassle for all those involved. VeriSign hasn't even bothered to put out a press release about it.