Kottke.org: Weblogs.com sold to Verisign

[Mr. Deleted]

http://kottke.org/05/10/weblogscom-sold-to-verisign

http://www.weblogs.com/

Boy, the scent of money is in the air these days. The latest report is that Dave Winer has sold weblogs.com to Verisign (~$5 million is the figure being bandied about). This is an interesting one because it seemed crazy (see below) when I first heard about it, but now that I've heard it from multiple sources, who knows?

 

[Mr. Deleted]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/4318732.stm

'Ping service'

In another sign of the growing attraction of blog firms, domain name provider Verisign has bought the similarly-named but entirely separate company Weblogs.com for $2.3m.

http://infrablog.verisignlabs.com/2005/10/weblogs_20_1.html

 

[Steen]

http://www.verisign.com/press_releases/pr/page_035944.html


Surprised there isn't more discussion about this.

 

[Limit$]

Verisign been buying alot!

 

[Mr. Deleted]

looks like they will be redesigning the site soon too, but that will take a lot of bandwith to add more graphics to an already busy server. But I guess if they use their own servers, of which they must have many, cause they are overchargeing for domains, that may be ok.

 

[Steen]

Verisign been buying alot!

It's great that Verisign has been diversifying (Jamster, etc).

cause they are overchargeing for domains, that may be ok.

Besides the minor stake Verisign has in NSI, Verisign does not sell domain name registrations.

 

[Focus]

did ebay not recently buy verisign or vice versa or something like that?

 

[Keynes]

did ebay not recently buy verisign or vice versa or something like that?

Verisign couldn't buy eBay, and I don't think eBay bought V (unless they took a small stake)

 

[Dave Zan]

did ebay not recently buy verisign or vice versa or something like that?

You're probably referring to this:

http://www.webhosting.info/news/1/p...signs-payment-gateway-business_1011052156.htm

PayPal to Acquire VeriSign's Payment Gateway Business

11th October 2005
Pays $370mn for the purchase; eBay and VeriSign form an alliance for online commerce and security.

eBay and VeriSign, today announced a strategic alliance that calls for the two companies to collaborate on payment services and security initiatives for e-commerce.

Under the terms of the agreements, PayPal, an eBay company, will acquire VeriSign's payment gateway business and combine it with PayPal's merchant services platform. VeriSign will also provide eBay and PayPal with a suite of security services that includes the deployment of two-factor authentication, a security system that gives customers a one-time password or digital certificate to help protect against online identity theft. With the acquisition of VeriSign's payment gateway, PayPal plans to accelerate its merchant services business by expanding its customer base of new small and medium-sized business customers online.

Additionally, eBay and VeriSign have signed a multi-year security technology agreement that calls for eBay to invest in the deployment of VeriSign technologies that enable and protect online transactions, including the purchase of up to one million two-factor authentication tokens. eBay and PayPal plan to begin the rollout of two-factor authentication to customers in 2006. PayPal will pay $370 million to purchase VeriSign's payment gateway business, payable in cash and/or eBay stock.