VeriSign to Acquire NameEngine and 1GlobalPlace
Acquisitions Strengthen Digital Brand Management Services That Enable Corporations to Expand their Global Brands
Mountain View, CA, December 6, 2001 – VeriSign, Inc. (Nasdaq:VRSN), the leading provider of digital trust services, today announced it has acquired 1GlobalPlace, Inc., of El Segundo, Calif., and entered into a definitive agreement to acquire NameEngine, Inc. of New York City, N.Y. Both companies, which are privately held, provide advanced domain name management services for Global 2000 companies.
NameEngine and 1GlobalPlace expand the offerings and geographic reach of VeriSign Digital Brand Management Services, which offer companies critical services needed to establish digital identities and safeguard digital assets across the Internet (see related press releases issued today).
“The Internet offers tremendous branding opportunities for companies to extend their existing product and service brands to a far larger audience,” said Maigread Eichten, vice president and business unit manager for the VeriSign Digital Brand Management Services division.
“NameEngine and 1GlobalPlace will be important additions to our strategy of offering our customers a suite of services to not only safeguard their digital brands but promote and extend them worldwide.”
“NameEngine’s high-touch service is now combined with VeriSign’s impressive infrastructure and reach,” said NameEngine CEO Antony Van Couvering. “NameEngine and VeriSign’s complementary technologies will offer companies robust digital brand management. Businesses will enjoy a combination of stability, technology and expertise to manage their digital brand portfolios.”
“1GlobalPlace’s global expertise and VeriSign’s comprehensive suite of services will enable businesses to expand and protect their brands in a cost-effective manner in more than 150 markets all over the world,” said Marc Holtenhoff, CEO of 1GlobalPlace.
The transactions in aggregate total $11 million in stock and cash consideration. VeriSign expects to realize less than $200,000 in revenues in the fourth quarter of 2001 as a result of these two acquisitions.
1GlobalPlace specializes in helping companies create and protect their digital identities in foreign markets. The company offers automated domain name registration and management in over 150 “restricted” and “unrestricted” countries. 1GlobalPlace is unusual in that it provides the services necessary to overcome the “local presence” barriers associated with securing a domain name in restricted markets, such as Germany. Its Corporate Asset Management Program is a Web-based management solution that allows enterprises to consolidate, standardize, register, recover, modify and manage all of their international domain assets.
Marc Holtenhoff, who founded 1GlobalPlace in 1998, has helped formulate and implement comprehensive enterprise asset management strategies for many companies. Prior to founding 1GlobalPlace, Holtenhoff spent five years with the Xerox Corporation as a sales and marketing executive. 1GlobalPlace’s clients include Fortune 500 and leading Internet companies.
NameEngine specializes in helping companies and legal professionals protect and manage Internet domain names and intellectual property on a global basis. NameEngine’s proprietary domain name management system, Central Station, is a browser-based system that enables clients to order, track and manage their domain names online – including country-code top-level domains, multilingual domains, and generic top-level domains such as .com, .net, and .org.
Prior to founding NameEngine in May of 1999, Antony Van Couvering founded NetNames USA in 1996, pioneering the business-to-business marketing of domain names and intellectual property protection, building the company and assisting some of America’s best-known companies, including a number of blue-chip companies, top intellectual property law firms as well and leading financial services organizations.
Mr. Holtenhoff and Mr. Van Couvering will remain with VeriSign in leadership roles. Approximately 40 employees from the two companies will also join VeriSign.
About VeriSign
VeriSign, Inc. (Nasdaq:VRSN) is the leading provider of digital trust services that enable everyone, everywhere to engage in commerce and communications with confidence. VeriSign’s digital trust services create a trusted environment through three core offerings — Web identity, authentication and payment services — powered by a global infrastructure that manages more than five billion network connections and transactions a day. Additional news and information about the company is available at www.verisign.com.
Contact Media Relations: Dave Berkowitz, dberkowitz@verisign.com, 650-426-4470
Investor Relations: Katie Ochsner, kochsner@verisign.com, 650-426-3512
