Holy sh!t…Verisign just called out “Domain Scalpers” and its biggest clients

Verisign states its biggest clients are engaged in a questionable practice of reselling domain names.

Fresh off a win with the U.S. government that will let it increase prices on .com domain names, Verisign (NASDAQ: VRSN) has dissed its biggest clients: domain investors.

In a blog post today, Verisign calls people who buy domains to sell for higher prices “domain scalpers” and states they are the ones to blame, not Verisign.

Among the firms it calls out are Turn Commerce and GoDaddy, who are supporters of Internet Commerce Association. Verisign writes:

Flipping domain names or warehousing them to create scarcity adds nothing to the industry and merely allows those engaged in this questionable practice to enrich themselves at the expense of consumers and businesses.

Yet it’s these very firms–especially Turn Commerce–that Verisign can give credit to for keeping its domain registrations growing. It’s domain investors in China that gave the firm a big boost. It’s firms like Turn Commerce that have bought millions of domains that have padded Verisign’s bottom line.

Verisign has been catering to this market for years. Sponsoring its conferences, promoting domain investing, creating the very tools designed to let domain investors know which domains to register…and now it wants to pretend it has nothing to do with this “questionable practice”. C’mon.

I’m flummoxed by Verisign’s decision to post this. I mean, it just won. I can understand the firm publishing this if Verisign was trying to move the discussion, but not that it got want it wants, why would it bash its biggest clients?

I’m dumbfounded.