Verisign earns a fee on every .com and .net name registered or renewed. In 2025 it returned slightly more cash to shareholders than its free cash flow, so higher fees must keep lifting operating income.
When you type a web address ending in .com, that name is recorded in a registry Verisign runs, the official database of every such name. The company keeps the master lists for .com and .net, which bring in almost all of its revenue. Registrars, the companies where people and businesses buy web addresses, sell the names. Each year they pay Verisign a fee for every name registered or renewed.
Agreements with ICANN (the body that coordinates internet names) and the US Department of Commerce set the fee and limit how much it can rise. Revenue therefore depends on new registrations, renewals and price increases. Imagine a bakery that renews its .com address every year. Each renewal sends Verisign another fee, at whatever level the agreement then allows. Running the registry takes engineering, security and overhead such as selling and administration, but very little equipment. So what Verisign keeps depends on the contract price and on overhead growing more slowly than revenue. Registrars also pay before the revenue is counted in the accounts, so cash arrives early.
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