.com contract extension, amends cooperative agreement — Verisign signs

Firm enters into three agreements today, counting the .com contract extension.

Verisign (NYSE:VRSN) today signed amended agreements with ICANN and the Department of Commerce (DOC) related to the U.S. government IANA functions transition.

The firm signed an amendment to its .com contract with ICANN, extending the term to 2024 and, at least for now, keeping the wholesale price of .com domain names fixed at $7.85. This extends the .com agreement to end at the same time its fresh Root Zone Maintainer agreement with ICANN expires.

Additionally, it signed Amendment Number 33 to the Cooperative Agreement between Verisign and the DOC to remove root zone management from that agreement. Now Verisign’s agreement with ICANN for root zone maintenance will go into effect.

It also signed Amendment Number 34 to the Cooperative Agreement, which effectively approves Verisign’s extension of the .com registry agreement with ICANN. The amendment also states that “the DOC retains the right to conduct a public interest review for the sole purpose of determining whether the DOC will extend the term of the Cooperative Agreement ahead of it expires on November 30, 2018.”