] But Sclavos also said he thinks much of the fury against
] VeriSign originates with companies that compete in the
] retail sale of domain names. Severing that part of the
] business could, in theory, blunt some of the critics.

The last time Verisign talked to the press about something it "might" do it was a week before SiteFinder went online. Given that this is the Mercury News they are literally fishing for buyers here.

They do a poor job of spinning the sale. NetSol is loosing market share by the barrel. Reason? Netsol charges several times what their closest competitors charge for the same service. Doing business with them is like flushing money down the toilet. In general the margins in the DNS business are very small and everyone struggles. There are basically too many players, but because changing "providers" is so difficult no one goes out of business. They just hang by threads.

I was always under the impression that the Verisign/Netsol deal made sense because these guys were selling higher end services into their customers, like security services and certificates, and they could tack the domain names on as a sort of one stop shopping. Basically make it convenient for businesses who might be willing to ignore playing a $30 premium. I think that offering registrations makes sense as it goes along side offering certificates, and without the family of services Verisign offers NetSol will die a quick death out in the cold on its own. This business is obviously not going to drive growth for them, but it might sweeten their margins. I imagine that it might be picked up by a competing registrar just to own the customers.

The PR position is, frankly, interesting. Instead of, say, treating the engineering community with some respect, they claim to think they can solve their problems by jettisoning another problem that the community has with them. Geeks hate NetSol because we all had domains from them back when it was free, and we recall not so fondly when we got that first bill (was it $80 something?). Most of the people who work in the alternative registrars did so because they felt that it was important to take control of this out of NetSol's hands.

However, getting rid of NetSol is not going to help Verisign now. Their executives continue, even in this article, to sling mud at the technical community in an attempt to discredit them. Why would any move they made improve their position in the eyes of a community they apparently think is totally insignificant to their business? Fact is, it won't, and they know it.

Verisign is pursuing this for another reason, which is not discussed in this article. Most of the restrictions on their management of the tlds which were referenced in ICANN's demand that SiteFinder be shutdown are restrictions on anti-competitive behavior vis-a-vis other domain name registrars. If Verisign is NOT a domain name registrar then they don't need to worry about creating a level playing field between the access they have, and the access that other domain name registrars have. Many of the restrictions on their activity in the ICANN contracts would go away.

Its hard to say if this move is specifically directed at making SiteFinder legal, or if Verisign has any other tricks waiting in the wings if the contractual concerns with SiteFinder are resolved in their favor. What IS clear is that this is an important move in the fight over SiteFinder, and its implications could be significant for those who don't wish to see the "service" restarted.

Verisign to sell off Network Solutions, keep tlds