VeriSign Completes Acquisition of Thawte Consulting from VeriSign, Inc.

VeriSign Completes Acquisition of Thawte

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA, February 1, 2000 - VeriSign, Inc. (Nasdaq: VRSN), the leading provider of Internet trust services, today announced the completion of its acquisition of privately held Thawte Consulting of South Africa. The merger will be accounted for as a purchase transaction. VeriSign will issue approximately 4.4 million shares to Thawte Consulting for all issued and outstanding shares of the company.

About VeriSign
VeriSign, Inc. is the leading provider of Internet trust services - including authentication, validation and payment - needed by Web sites, enterprises and e-commerce service providers to conduct trusted and secure electronic commerce and communications over IP networks. VeriSign's trust services for Web sites, developers and individuals are available through www.verisign.com and through a growing number of ISPs and Web hosting companies. The company's digital certificate services for enterprises and electronic commerce service providers are available through regional account representatives, resellers, and global affiliates.

About Thawte Consulting
Thawte Consulting is a global provider of digital certificate products, services and solutions that create security, privacy and authentication in electronic commerce. Thawte offers a range of certificate solutions that encompass Internet security, extranet security, email security and Enterprise PKI requirements.

Thawte was started in 1995 and is now one of the largest Internet Certificate Authorities worldwide, with offices in both the United States and South Africa, and representation in more than 22 countries. Thawte has issued tens of thousands certificates to Internet e-commerce web servers and for secure email and software distribution.

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