At least $1.125 billion revenue in 2020 even without price increases — Verisign expects

Firm doesn’t bake price increases into guidance.

.Com registry Verisign (NASDAQ: VRSN) expects to generate $1.250 billion to $1.265 billion in revenue next year, even without price increases in .com, the firm disclosed yesterday.

That compares to $1.232 billion in 2019.

The numbers could be better if Verisign enacts a 7% increase in the wholesale price of .com domains next year, as it is likely to do. ICANN has proposed allowing the firm to increases prices beginning in 2020. Any price increase would take place later in the year, though, and the impact is difficult to measure without knowing when it will happen and how many domains will be renewed for the remainder of the year.

As part of the deal to enact price increases, Verisign is chipping $4 million a year into ICANN’s coffers. On the firm’s investor conference call yesterday, Verisign CEO James Bidzos answered a question regarding what this money is for. Analyst Nick Jones of Citi asked for clarification on how this money will be used as if it will be used for special/additional projects.

Bidzos stated “…ICANN’s core mission is security and stability and that’s where this funding is going…”