News & Events

VeriSign Purchases Assets of Weblogs.com

Increases Reliability and Infrastructure of Ping Server Architecture for Blogosphere

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA, October 7, 2005 - VeriSign, Inc. (Nasdaq: VRSN), the leading provider of intelligent infrastructure services for the Internet and telecommunications networks, today announced that it has purchased Weblogs.com and its ping service from Scripting News, Inc., to provide more stable and reliable communications for the Internet’s blogosphere.

A ping server automatically notifies subscribers when new content is posted to a Web site or blog.  Weblogs.com is the original ping server created and developed by pioneering blogger Dave Winer, also one of the pioneers of Really Simple Syndication (RSS).  Weblogs.com currently handles nearly two million pings each day and supports thousands of daily RSS feeds from bloggers as well as professional publishers.  By migrating Weblogs.com’s ping service to VeriSign’s reliable and scalable ping infrastructure, VeriSign will be able to offer the users of RSS and real-time content a robust, intelligent platform as the use of RSS and real-time content continues its rapid growth. VeriSign will continue to operate Weblogs.com as an openly available service, greatly benefiting the entire blogosphere, from individual bloggers to value-added feed applications such as blog search services. 

“The Internet has experienced an explosion in both the number of bloggers and the number of daily RSS feeds from bloggers over the past 12 to 24 months, but the infrastructure to support that level of Internet communications has not kept pace,” said Mark McLaughlin, senior vice president of VeriSign’s Naming and Directory Services. “VeriSign is uniquely positioned to provide the scalable, secure infrastructure that the blogosphere needs. Purchasing the ping server architecture of Weblogs.com enables VeriSign to continue supporting the vast numbers of Internet communications and improve the experience of millions of Internet users.”

Currently, VeriSign enables over 14.5 billion Internet interactions each day in operating the Internet’s .com and .net infrastructure.

VeriSign purchased Weblogs.com from Scripting News, Inc. for $2.3 million in cash. To read more about VeriSign’s work in supporting the blogosphere, visit http://www.verisign.com/infrablog.

About VeriSign 
VeriSign, Inc. (Nasdaq: VRSN), operates intelligent infrastructure services that enable and protect interactions across voice and data networks-anytime, from anywhere on multiple devices. Additional news and information about the company is available at www.verisign.com

For more information, contact: 
VeriSign Media Relations: Patrick Burns, pburns@verisign.com, 703-948-4471 
VeriSign Investor Relations: Tom McCallum, tmccallum@verisign.com, 650-426-3744

Statements in this announcement other than historical data and information constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. These statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause VeriSign's actual results to differ materially from those stated or implied by such forward-looking statements. The potential risks and uncertainties include, among others, the uncertainty of future revenue and profitability and potential fluctuations in quarterly operating results due to such factors as the inability of VeriSign to successfully market its services, including the weblogs.com services; customer acceptance of the services as provided by VeriSign; the risk that expected economies in servicing customers will not materialize; the incurrence of unexpected costs integrating the assets; increased competition and pricing pressures; and the inability of VeriSign to successfully develop and market new products and services and customer acceptance of any new products or services. More information about potential factors that could affect the company's business and financial results is included in VeriSign's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including in the company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2004 and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. VeriSign undertakes no obligation to update any of the forward-looking statement after the date of this press release.

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