From 97% Losses to a Legal Monopoly
Verisign has a monopoly on registering dot.com sites. It’s the toll machine for the information superhighway, siphoning a yearly free from every dot.com and dot.net website out there. Music to investors’ ears, right? But it hasn’t always been smooth sailing.
Verisign is a fallen angel of the dot.com boom. Its label as an internet upstart gave it astronomical stock market gains in the 90s, but when the bubble popped, Verisign crashed 97%. Crunch! The company had been unceremoniously dumped, but little did investors know the +2,736% fortune they’d robbed of themselves.
According to recent studies, 90% of us recognize the Verisign seal and consider it ‘the’ trustmark for security. The company can boast a 100% uptime over 20 years of hosting, and if that’s not enough, over 70 patents to really keep the outsiders out. Verisign’s monopoly is a legal monopoly as well, and it’s too late for another company to replace it. Things have gotten too far. This business is a monster, and the internet just wouldn’t work without it! Why then, are some investors warning of the bear?
Verisign’s long-term fate is in the hands of the government, and investors are notoriously long-term thinkers. If nationalization becomes the call, Verisign’s CEO would be a mere passenger, and his party would be cut short. The market is also getting untimely flashbacks, with shares picking up momentum once again as they did two decades ago. Just a Halloween spook?