Verisign to make money the easy way

…they raise rates. For years Smith Barney ran ads featuring gravel-voiced actors intoning “We make money the old-fashioned way: We EARN it”. Well, Verisign just raised the rates to new domain purchases by 7% – netting them an estimated $27 million. Not a bad way to make money if you ask me.

You see, Verisign is THE overseer of the domain names and all registrars must purchase domains from Verisign (can you say monopoly?) . So that means we (the consumer) have to pay more for domain names. For example, you buy domain names from a domain registrar for $8.99 after the rate hike expect to pay $9.62 per year. Living in the U.S. I am behind capitalism 100%, but why is Verisign raising rates, because they can? It looks that way.

According to the contract between ICAAN and Verisign, they can raise rate 7% per year as long as the agreement is intact. Get you wallets ready folks…