⚠ The Contract Is Not PropertyHigh threat

VeriSign (VRSN) — threat to the moat

The thing that makes VeriSign extraordinary is a contract, and a contract has a term.

VeriSign does not own .com. It has been asked to run it.

Everything rests on one agreementRenewal date30 November 2030Revenue governed by it, 2025$1,656.6MAgencies whose approval a price change needs1, the Department of CommerceOperating margin, Q2 202668.2%VeriSign 10-K FY2025 and Q2 2026 results
A 68% margin sits on a contract the counterparty can reshape at each renewal.

The distinction is easy to lose because the arrangement has been renewed so many times that it feels like property. It is not. The .com Registry Agreement must be renewed or extended by November 30, 2030, and although it contains a presumptive right of renewal, ICANN can terminate or refuse to renew "in certain prescribed circumstances."1 Buried alongside it is a clause almost nobody discusses: if the agreement's terms are not similar to those generally in effect for the five largest gTLDs, a renewal must be on terms reasonably necessary to make them similar. The registries VeriSign is measured against are, increasingly, the new gTLDs — and their agreements were written later, under different assumptions.

Then there is the Department of Commerce. VeriSign's operation of .com is also governed by a Cooperative Agreement, last amended in 2018 and automatically renewed on the same terms on November 30, 2024; the DOC's prior written approval is required for any change to the pricing section.2 That is a federal agency holding a veto over the single most important variable in the business — and it is a political appointment away from a different view.

The pressure is not hypothetical. In November 2024, Senator Elizabeth Warren and Representative Jerry Nadler wrote to NTIA and the Justice Department urging action on what they called VeriSign's monopoly over .com pricing.3 An advocacy group has argued that a competitively tendered .com wholesale price would be $0.87 to $4.37, against the $10.26 VeriSign charges.4 Reasonable people can dispute that arithmetic. Nobody can dispute that it is now being done in public.

The renewal has never failed, which is exactly why the market prices no probability that it will. Watch the Cooperative Agreement's pricing section: if a future amendment freezes .com pricing or introduces competitive re-tendering, the moat does not narrow — the price ladder that produces most of the growth simply stops.

The number that tests this threat
Reported
Revenue governed by the .com agreement
Essentially all of it — $1,656.6 million

There is no diversification to fall back on. The .com Registry Agreement must be renewed or extended by 30 November 2030, the Department of Commerce holds a veto over pricing changes, and a parity clause ties renewal terms to those generally in effect across the five largest gTLDs. In November 2024 a U.S. senator and a member of Congress urged NTIA and the Justice Department to act on .com pricing, and the Cooperative Agreement renewed automatically three weeks later. Watch the pricing section of that agreement, not the competition.

How it's calculated: The revenue figure is the FY2025 total; .com and .net registrations are the overwhelming majority of it and the 10-K does not disclose a .com-only line.
Source: VeriSign Form 10-K, FY2025 ↗
References
  1. ReportedThe .com Registry Agreement must be renewed or extended by 30 November 2030 and contains a presumptive right of renewal, with ICANN able to terminate or refuse in certain prescribed circumstances; a clause requires renewal on terms similar to those generally in effect across the five largest gTLDs.
    VeriSign, Inc., Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended 31 December 2025 (SEC, CIK 1014473) — Item 1, Business. VeriSign operates the .com and .net registries under registry agreements with ICANN, and .com additionally under a Cooperative Agreement with the U.S. Department of Commerce (most recently amended by Amendment 35 on 26 October 2018, automatically renewed on the same terms on 30 November 2024 for a successive six-year term, renewing again on 30 November 2030 unless the DOC gives notice). The .com Registry Agreement runs a six-year term that must be renewed or extended by 30 November 2030 and contains a presumptive right of renewal, with ICANN able to terminate or refuse in certain prescribed circumstances; it permits an increase to the Maximum Price of up to 7% over the previous year in each of the final four years of each six-year period, the current period having begun on 26 October 2024. The .net Registry Agreement was renewed on 29 June 2023, runs to 1 July 2029 and permits increases of up to 10% each year. VeriSign remits $0.2575 to ICANN quarterly for each annual .com registration and $0.25 for each .name registration. It also operates .cc under an agreement with the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, operates .name and internationalised gTLDs, provides back-end services for .edu, performs the Root Zone Maintainer function for ICANN and operates two of the thirteen global internet root servers. Retail pricing is established by registrars; VeriSign must provide ICANN-accredited registrars with non-discriminatory access, faces marketing and bundling limits, must submit new Registry Services for ICANN review, and is subject to vertical-integration restrictions that apply solely to .com — obligations it states do not apply to ccTLDs and other gTLDs and may create a competitive disadvantage. Named registry competitors include CentralNic, China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), DENIC eG, GoDaddy, Google, Identity Digital, Nominet, Public Interest Registry, Radix and .xyz. Employee headcount 928 (256 cost of revenues, 240 research and development, 432 selling, general and administrative). — FY2025 · publ. 2026-02-05 · source ↗
  2. ReportedThe Cooperative Agreement was last amended in 2018 and renewed automatically on the same terms on 30 November 2024, with the DOC's prior written approval required for any change to the pricing section.
    VeriSign, Inc., Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended 31 December 2025 (SEC, CIK 1014473) — Item 1, Business. VeriSign operates the .com and .net registries under registry agreements with ICANN, and .com additionally under a Cooperative Agreement with the U.S. Department of Commerce (most recently amended by Amendment 35 on 26 October 2018, automatically renewed on the same terms on 30 November 2024 for a successive six-year term, renewing again on 30 November 2030 unless the DOC gives notice). The .com Registry Agreement runs a six-year term that must be renewed or extended by 30 November 2030 and contains a presumptive right of renewal, with ICANN able to terminate or refuse in certain prescribed circumstances; it permits an increase to the Maximum Price of up to 7% over the previous year in each of the final four years of each six-year period, the current period having begun on 26 October 2024. The .net Registry Agreement was renewed on 29 June 2023, runs to 1 July 2029 and permits increases of up to 10% each year. VeriSign remits $0.2575 to ICANN quarterly for each annual .com registration and $0.25 for each .name registration. It also operates .cc under an agreement with the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, operates .name and internationalised gTLDs, provides back-end services for .edu, performs the Root Zone Maintainer function for ICANN and operates two of the thirteen global internet root servers. Retail pricing is established by registrars; VeriSign must provide ICANN-accredited registrars with non-discriminatory access, faces marketing and bundling limits, must submit new Registry Services for ICANN review, and is subject to vertical-integration restrictions that apply solely to .com — obligations it states do not apply to ccTLDs and other gTLDs and may create a competitive disadvantage. Named registry competitors include CentralNic, China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), DENIC eG, GoDaddy, Google, Identity Digital, Nominet, Public Interest Registry, Radix and .xyz. Employee headcount 928 (256 cost of revenues, 240 research and development, 432 selling, general and administrative). — FY2025 · publ. 2026-02-05 · source ↗
  3. ReportedSenator Elizabeth Warren and Representative Jerry Nadler wrote to NTIA and the Department of Justice in November 2024 urging action on VeriSign's control of .com pricing.
    American Economic Liberties Project — statement on the NTIA decision to leave the .com Cooperative Agreement in place. Senator Elizabeth Warren and Representative Jerry Nadler wrote to NTIA and the Department of Justice in November 2024 urging action on VeriSign's control of .com pricing; the group's policy brief argues that a competitively tendered .com wholesale price would be between $0.87 and $4.37, against the $10.26 in effect from September 2024, and that the arrangement locks in increases at more than twice inflation while foreclosing competitive re-tendering. — 2024 · publ. 2024-11-27 · source ↗
  4. Third-party estimateAn advocacy group has argued that a competitively tendered .com wholesale price would be between $0.87 and $4.37, against the $10.26 VeriSign charges.
    American Economic Liberties Project — statement on the NTIA decision to leave the .com Cooperative Agreement in place. Senator Elizabeth Warren and Representative Jerry Nadler wrote to NTIA and the Department of Justice in November 2024 urging action on VeriSign's control of .com pricing; the group's policy brief argues that a competitively tendered .com wholesale price would be between $0.87 and $4.37, against the $10.26 in effect from September 2024, and that the arrangement locks in increases at more than twice inflation while foreclosing competitive re-tendering. — 2024 · publ. 2024-11-27 · source ↗
Sources
Generated September 23, 2026