Pay $6M More to ICANN in FY 2010 — VeriSign to

Proposed budget includes increased contractual fee from VeriSign.

Internet Corporation For Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has published its Proposed Framework for FY10 Operating Plan and Budget (pdf). ICANN’s Financial Year 2010 runs July 1, 2009 to June 30, 2010.

Despite the possibility of declining domain registrations, ICANN will get a $6 million windfall thanks to a fixed fee provision in its dotcom agreement with VeriSign (NASDAQ: VRSN). VeriSign will pay $18 M to ICANN for running the .com registry during the year, compared to $12 M in FY ’09. (VeriSign pays a variable free of 75 cents for each .net transaction.)

Since of this fixed fee, ICANN expects a 28% increase in registry related revenue for FY ’10 compared to FY ’09. It forecasts a slight decrease in registrar revenue.

ICANN expects to spend nearly $7.5 M on fresh gTLD implementation and delegation for the year, which is 14% lower than forecast for 2009. Still, admitted delays in fresh gTLD implementation may push back expenses. ICANN is budgeting that it won’t be able to contribute its goal of $10M-$15M to its reserve fund in FY ’10 due to fresh gTLD expenses. A separate fresh TLD budget will be published prior to the launch of fresh TLDs. This budget will include the revenue and expenses anticipated from fresh TLDs (the $7.5 M forecast is for implementation, not execution).

If you’re wondering where the rest of your money goes, here’s a breakdown of the proposed FY ’10 budget compared to the actual expenses in FY ’07:

Personnel: $24.7M, up 79%
Travel & Meetings: $11.5M, up 85%
Professional services: $11.9M, up 102%
Administration: $6.3M, up 105%

During the same period, revenue is up 56%.