VeriSign Q4 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

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February 6, 2025
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Operator

Good day, everyone. Welcome to VeriSign's Fourth Quarter and Full Year twenty twenty four Earnings Call. Today's conference is being recorded. Recording of this call is not permitted unless preauthorized. At this time, I'd like to turn the conference over to Mr. David Atchley, Vice President of Investor Relations and Corporate Treasurer. Please go ahead, sir.

David Atchley
David Atchley
Vice President, Investor Relations & Corporate Treasurer at VeriSign

Thank you, operator. Welcome to VeriSign's fourth quarter and full year twenty twenty four earnings call. Joining me are Jim Bidzos, Executive Chairman, President and CEO and George Kilgus, Executive Vice President and CFO. This call and presentation are being webcast from the Investor Relations website, which is available under About VeriSign on verisign.com. There you will also find our earnings release.

David Atchley
David Atchley
Vice President, Investor Relations & Corporate Treasurer at VeriSign

At the end of this call, the presentation will be available on that site and within a few hours, the replay of the call will be posted. Financial results in our earnings release are unaudited and our remarks include forward looking statements that are subject to the risks and uncertainties that we discuss in detail in our documents filed with the SEC, specifically the most recent report on Form 10 K. VeriSign does not update financial performance or guidance during the quarter unless it is done through a public disclosure. The financial results in today's call and the matters we will be discussing today include GAAP results and two non GAAP measures used by VeriSign, adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow. GAAP to non GAAP reconciliation information is appended to the slide presentation, which can be found on the Investor Relations section of our website available after this call.

David Atchley
David Atchley
Vice President, Investor Relations & Corporate Treasurer at VeriSign

Jim and George will provide some prepared remarks and afterward, we will open the call for your questions. With that, I would like to turn the call over to Jim.

James Bidzos
James Bidzos
CEO & Executive Chairman of the Board at VeriSign

Thank you, David. Good afternoon to everyone and thank you for joining us. I'm pleased with VeriSign's success of continuing to deliver on our mission during 2024. We extended our unparalleled record of uninterrupted.com and .net resolution to more than twenty seven years in an increasingly evolving cyber threat environment, while protecting, improving and strengthening our network. Aerosign's network now processes on average more than 400,000,000,000 transactions daily.

James Bidzos
James Bidzos
CEO & Executive Chairman of the Board at VeriSign

Our focus remains on providing the security, stability and resiliency Internet users worldwide have come to depend on not only for .com and .net but for the DNS root zone as well. Financially, in 2024, we delivered 4.3 year over year revenue growth while increasing operating income by 5.7%. Shares outstanding at the end of twenty twenty four decreased by 6.2% from the total of outstanding shares at the end of twenty twenty three. Our financial and liquidity position continues to remain stable with $600,000,000 in cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities at the end of the year. During 2024, we returned $1,200,000,000 of capital to shareholders through the repurchase of 6,600,000.0 shares.

James Bidzos
James Bidzos
CEO & Executive Chairman of the Board at VeriSign

At year end, 1,000,000,000 remained available and authorized under the current share repurchase program, which has no expiration. At the December, the domain name base in .com and .net totaled 169,000,000 domain names, a decrease of 2.1% or 3,700,000 names year over year. During the fourth quarter, the domain name base decreased by 500,000 names. From a new registration perspective, we saw improvement sequentially and year over year with fourth quarter new registrations of 9,500,000 compared with 9,000,000 names for the same quarter last year and 9,300,000 during the third quarter of twenty twenty four. The renewal rate for the fourth quarter of twenty twenty four, which is expected to be approximately 73.9%, shows improvement both sequentially and year over year.

James Bidzos
James Bidzos
CEO & Executive Chairman of the Board at VeriSign

From a geographic region perspective during Q4 and the full year 2024, we saw decreases in a domain name base from both our U. S. And China based registrars. The domain name base in EMEA was up both sequentially and for the full year 2024. In 2024, the decrease in China volumes was in line with our expectations at the start of the year.

James Bidzos
James Bidzos
CEO & Executive Chairman of the Board at VeriSign

For 2025, we continue to expect our China Registrar segment to decline, albeit at a slower pace. As that segment now represents only 5% of our domain name base, the decrease from China will have a smaller impact. As we have previously reported, we've seen U. S. Registrars prioritize ARPU over customer acquisition through higher retail pricing levels, reduced spend on marketing to new customers compared with prior years and an increased focus on the secondary market for domain names.

James Bidzos
James Bidzos
CEO & Executive Chairman of the Board at VeriSign

These factors impacted new registrations and renewal rates in 2024 for our U. S. Region. In response to these trends, we began working to reengage registrars on new customer acquisition by launching new marketing programs for .com and .net to support our goal of returning to domain name based growth. As we stated last quarter, we have seen positive response to our new programs and we expect many of the registrars to engage more fully in 2025.

James Bidzos
James Bidzos
CEO & Executive Chairman of the Board at VeriSign

It is early in this process, but we are optimistic that our efforts will start to improve the DNB growth trend in 2025. Given these conditions and trends for 2025, we are expecting the year over year change in the base to be negative 2.3% to negative 0.3%. And now I'd like to turn the call over to George. I'll return when George has completed his financial report with closing remarks.

George Kilguss
George Kilguss
Executive VP & CFO at VeriSign

Thanks Jim and good afternoon everyone. For the year ended 12/31/2024, the company generated revenue of $1,557,000,000 dollars up 4.3%. Operating expenses totaled $499,000,000 and were up 1.4% from the previous year resulting in operating income of $1,058,000,000 dollars up 5.7% from 2023. For the fourth quarter ended 12/31/2024, the company generated revenue of $395,000,000 up 3.9% from the same quarter of 2023 and delivered operating income of $264,000,000 an increase of 2.9% from the same quarter a year ago. Operating expense in Q4 twenty twenty four totaled 132,000,000 which compares to $121,000,000 during the third quarter and $124,000,000 a year earlier.

George Kilguss
George Kilguss
Executive VP & CFO at VeriSign

As we discussed on our last quarter's earnings call, we expected an increase in Q4 operating expenses due to prior quarter spending delays that were pushed into the fourth quarter. Net income in the fourth quarter totaled $191,000,000 compared to $265,000,000 a year earlier, which produced diluted earnings per share of $2 for the fourth quarter of twenty twenty four compared to $2.6 for the same quarter of 2023. As previously discussed, net income in the fourth quarter of last year included the recognition of a $69,300,000 of income tax benefits, which increased diluted earnings per share by $0.68 in the year ago quarter. Operating cash flow for the fourth quarter of twenty twenty four was $232,000,000 and free cash flow was $222,000,000 compared with $2.00 $4,000,000 and $199,000,000 respectively in the year ago quarter. Operating cash flow and free cash flow for the full year of 2024 totaled $9.00 $3,000,000 and $875,000,000 respectively.

George Kilguss
George Kilguss
Executive VP & CFO at VeriSign

I'll now discuss our full year 2025 guidance. Revenue is expected to be between $1,615,000,000 dollars and $1,635,000,000 dollars Operating income is expected to be between $1,095,000,000 dollars dollars and $1,115,000,000 dollars Interest expense and non operating income net, which includes interest income estimates, is expected to be an expense of between $50,000,000 and $60,000,000 Capital expenditures are expected to be between $30,000,000 and $40,000,000 And the GAAP effective tax rate is expected to be between 2124%. Overall, VeriSign continued to demonstrate sound financial discipline during the fourth quarter and throughout 2024. Now, I'll return the call back to Jim for his closing remarks.

James Bidzos
James Bidzos
CEO & Executive Chairman of the Board at VeriSign

Thank you, George. In summary, VeriSign successfully concluded the year by renewing the .com Registry Agreement with ICANN and the Cooperative Agreement with the NTIA. We extended our unparalleled 27 track record of resolution availability for .com and .net and we delivered sound financial and operational results. As we look to 2025 and beyond, we'll continue to focus on and be driven by our mission. As it relates to the domain name based growth rate for 2025, we see three positive trends taking shape.

James Bidzos
James Bidzos
CEO & Executive Chairman of the Board at VeriSign

First, the decrease from China based registrars is expected to be more muted. Second, the marketing programs we rolled out in 2024 and continue to offer for 2025 are being adopted by our registrars and are starting to impact trends. Finally, while it's early in the cyclical trend, we do expect registrars to start refocusing on customer acquisition and are starting to hear from some registers an expectation for increased marketing efforts in 2025. Although we expect a slight decline to the domain name base in 2025, we do expect trends to improve from what we saw in 2024. Thank you for your attention today.

James Bidzos
James Bidzos
CEO & Executive Chairman of the Board at VeriSign

This concludes our prepared remarks and now we'll open the call for your questions. Operator, we're ready for the first question.

Operator

Thank And we'll take a question from Rob Oliver with Baird.

Rob Oliver
Senior Research Analyst at Robert W. Baird & Co

Great. Thank you. Good afternoon. I had a couple of questions. Jim, first for you, in your closing remarks there, you mentioned it was a big year for you guys last year with the ICANN renewal as well as the cooperative agreement at the NTIA.

Rob Oliver
Senior Research Analyst at Robert W. Baird & Co

And certainly, the investor focus now is pivoted towards the domain base and you certainly you finished with three points as to why you're more optimistic on that. I guess from your perspective, maybe looking at the macro as well in addition to those three points, if you could give us some more color on the three, but also just around the macro generally, I know you mentioned that you suspected that some of the registrars might be pivoting more towards new domains, which would be very encouraging. What gives you that comfort? And then I have a couple of follow ups.

James Bidzos
James Bidzos
CEO & Executive Chairman of the Board at VeriSign

Okay. Thanks, Rob. Well, as you know, today we guided the domain name base continuing to decrease during this year 2025, although the midpoint of our range suggests an improving trend from what we saw last year. We do see the trends that have negative impact as cyclical in nature and we do expect the domain name base to return to growth once we work through those trends. As I said earlier, China is lessening and now only represents 5% of our business.

James Bidzos
James Bidzos
CEO & Executive Chairman of the Board at VeriSign

Also, our new marketing programs are being adopted. We're seeing positive impact from them. It's early. We expect more throughout the year. Finally, while it's early in the cyclical trend, we do expect registrars to start refocusing on customer acquisition and are starting to hear from registrars, like I said, an expectation for increased marketing efforts.

James Bidzos
James Bidzos
CEO & Executive Chairman of the Board at VeriSign

In fact, I'd point out that two registrars are running Super Bowl ads, which will reach around 200,000,000 viewers. So as you look back, the two main trends we called out, China and ARPU, were impacting the DNB and both seem to be easing. And where we could influence zone growth through marketing programs, there are encouraging signs. And also renewal rates have improved. So that's the picture we see.

Rob Oliver
Senior Research Analyst at Robert W. Baird & Co

And on those marketing programs, Jim, if you could just provide a little bit more color perhaps on if there are particular regions where you guys are seeing early traction. I know you've said it's still early and the results won't be immediate and we get that or perhaps this is for George, but any particular areas where you're seeing early signs that the marketing programs are starting to take hold or conversely where you've had to tweak them and feel comfortable that you now have the formula right? Any color there would be great.

James Bidzos
James Bidzos
CEO & Executive Chairman of the Board at VeriSign

Okay. I'll invite George to comment. I'll just say that it takes time to get these things integrated. There's adoption integration and there's actual performance. So it may be early to give you a clear picture of where we are, but we do see signs. George, do you want to comment?

George Kilguss
George Kilguss
Executive VP & CFO at VeriSign

Yes, sure, Rob. I mean, as we've mentioned, the focus of our new programs is really to offer more options for our registered community to help them engage in a variety of programs that really are more aligned with their particular go to market strategies. So again, looking for opportunities for a win win. As we talked about in 2024, we spent a lot of time developing and piloting a lot of these programs. We have gotten feedback.

George Kilguss
George Kilguss
Executive VP & CFO at VeriSign

We've also refined and recently relaunched these programs late in 2024 here. We actually had a few programs that we rolled out here early in January as well. Again, from a little color, when we talk to registrars, we gotten a lot of positive feedback from registrars that our programs are aligning with the strategy that they're employing and they feel they can use these programs within their own marketing programs. So that's good news for us. As far as early adoption, I'd say it's a little early right now.

George Kilguss
George Kilguss
Executive VP & CFO at VeriSign

Most registrars are just starting to roll out there. Even though we've had these programs launched late last year and we've gotten good feedback and we've modified some of them, They're really gearing up to roll them out here in 2025. Some registrars do engage a little earlier than others, but I think it's a little early for us to comment on that. But we are optimistic about the programs we've rolled out and we've gotten great feedback.

Rob Oliver
Senior Research Analyst at Robert W. Baird & Co

Great. That's helpful. And then the last one for me, Jim, back to you. Just we've got a couple of kind of leadership changes happening. One obvious one, we have a new administration in D.

Rob Oliver
Senior Research Analyst at Robert W. Baird & Co

C. So we'd be curious to hear from you what, if anything, you might expect or how we should think about that relative to VeriSign's business, number one. Number two, are discussions with the NTIA ongoing? I know that the NTIA obviously dictated did not ultimately request any changes, but you guys had agreed to sit down with them. So I'd be curious to hear whether those discussions are ongoing.

Rob Oliver
Senior Research Analyst at Robert W. Baird & Co

And then I know we have a new Head of ICANN that came in, in December. So any thoughts there would be helpful? I realize that's a lot. Thank you guys very much.

James Bidzos
James Bidzos
CEO & Executive Chairman of the Board at VeriSign

Okay. Thanks, Rob. Well, first of all, I would just point out that where we are today, VeriSign, the cooperative agreement, ICANN, this whole process is a result of decades of very successful policy across many different administrations of many political stripes. So we tend to sort of see that as not a directly impacting factor, just a long supported consistent policy with security and stability as the main driver. And as you mentioned, there are new folks in December.

James Bidzos
James Bidzos
CEO & Executive Chairman of the Board at VeriSign

Of course, we have a new CEO at ICANN and we'll be getting a new NTIA administrator shortly, we believe. And we look we have great relationships with both organizations and we look forward to continuing them. We've always maintained a good working relationship with ICANN for many decades and we look forward to working with the new CEO, Curtis Lindqvist and his leadership team, particularly in the areas we engage in mostly, which is security and stability of the DNS and DNS abuse. About the second part of your question, ongoing discussions with the NTIA, that's typical for our relationship. We look forward to working with the new NTIA Assistant Secretary upon her confirmation and I look forward to meeting her.

James Bidzos
James Bidzos
CEO & Executive Chairman of the Board at VeriSign

I think until then, I won't speculate. But let me add some background that might be a little bit helpful there. First, the Cooperative Agreement is long contained, as I think most of the listeners here know, strict requirements that VeriSign meet the most rigorous availability and performance specifications of any TLD due to the reliance of services and infrastructure on common net. In 2018, Amendment 35 retained these provisions and while there was reduced regulation, there was also explicit protection for registrant First Amendment rights by guaranteeing that the .com registry will remain content neutral. These and the other policies in the 2018 amendment have proven in the last six years to be successful in continuing, the policy of security and stability and resilience first and the critical importance of .com to the security and stability of the infrastructure that's literally critical to the digital economy of The U.

James Bidzos
James Bidzos
CEO & Executive Chairman of the Board at VeriSign

S. And finally, I'll just mention that the recent .com renewals enabled us to clear up some disinformation that was spread during that process. One, for example, is that we received money from the government, which simply isn't true. Our cooperative agreement is not a procurement contract and the U. S.

James Bidzos
James Bidzos
CEO & Executive Chairman of the Board at VeriSign

Government doesn't fund VeriSign for the secure and reliable Internet service that VeriSign helps to preserve every day and has without interruption for twenty seven years. And as I mentioned, now processing an average of over 400,000,000,000 transactions every day, which by the way is 40 times the number of daily average Google searches, 40x. And there was a lot of misinformation about our pricing as well. As you know, our pricing is capped and it's transparent. It's a simple fact that our limited pricing flexibility at the wholesale level hasn't kept up with global CPI over the last six years, while at the same time we've seen the unregulated retail price increases exceed our wholesale price increases.

James Bidzos
James Bidzos
CEO & Executive Chairman of the Board at VeriSign

So hopefully that bit is helpful. We look forward to engaging with our new regulators and we look forward to it.

Rob Oliver
Senior Research Analyst at Robert W. Baird & Co

Great. Okay. I'm going to go back. I need to read that transcript. Thank you guys very much. I appreciate that, Jeff. Thanks.

James Bidzos
James Bidzos
CEO & Executive Chairman of the Board at VeriSign

Sure.

Operator

And we'll take our last question from Yigal Aronian with Citi.

Ygal Arounian
Ygal Arounian
Analyst at Citigroup

Hey, good afternoon guys. Let me start on coming back to the comments on the cyclical trends that you're expecting from the registrars to kind of go back and be a little bit more focused on the broader top of the funnel customer acquisition. And that sounds like what you guys were trying to accomplish with the marketing programs, but it also sounds like you're talking about both of those points as two distinct things. Is that true? And if we're moving back in that part of the cyclical part of the cycle, why are the marketing programs important?

Ygal Arounian
Ygal Arounian
Analyst at Citigroup

Does it kind of help amplify that move back up cycle?

James Bidzos
James Bidzos
CEO & Executive Chairman of the Board at VeriSign

I think if I understood the question, it's if a cyclical turn is coming, why the programs? Is that I hope that's not an unfair summary.

Ygal Arounian
Ygal Arounian
Analyst at Citigroup

Okay. I guess, are they two distinct points? And if yes, then why the Yes.

James Bidzos
James Bidzos
CEO & Executive Chairman of the Board at VeriSign

So, okay, I would say two things that we brought up in the past. First of all, we pointed out that the programs were actually being designed as a response to the evolving nature and structure of our channel. We got a lot of website builders who have become registrars. They have different business models. There are more of them.

James Bidzos
James Bidzos
CEO & Executive Chairman of the Board at VeriSign

Some are large, some are small. So, designing programs that met their needs and gave them flexibility as opposed to and I'll generalize a bit here, the one size fits all that we kind of used in the past, that was a primary motivator. And when we talked about the cyclical trend from ARPU back to customer acquisition, I think I remember a quarter or two ago saying that we would focus on programs and that we hope to get a tailwind from a return to customer acquisition. So, I don't think those it's not sort of one or the other. We certainly can do both because they're really for different reasons.

James Bidzos
James Bidzos
CEO & Executive Chairman of the Board at VeriSign

Some of the programs maybe can incentivize a shift away from ARPU, but I don't think that has the same effect as giving our registrars the choice that the diverse nature of that channel is going to require. George, do you have any comment?

George Kilguss
George Kilguss
Executive VP & CFO at VeriSign

I would just say, Yigal, look, we clearly have a good channel. The stronger we can make that channel, the better off it is for us. And so we're trying to support that channel because they are evolving, they have different needs. And sometimes some of our previous programs may not have fit the needs of all registrars. We're taking that feedback.

George Kilguss
George Kilguss
Executive VP & CFO at VeriSign

We're helping them. We're also trying to help them target registrations, new registrations to high renewal rate cohorts, which would be good for them and good for us. And so, as Jim said, that the channel continues to evolve, the market continues to evolve, and we believe we need to continue to do the same to support the channel.

James Bidzos
James Bidzos
CEO & Executive Chairman of the Board at VeriSign

And I guess one last thing I might add here is that we said, I think George mentioned in his remarks that we're seeing take up in the channel. I think this is a result of offering more flexibility and choice in our programs. In the past, when we had a fairly straightforward simple program offered to all, we saw that it worked for some and didn't work for some. And what the feedback we're getting is that these choices are great and they're finding programs that work for them. That's the initial take up.

James Bidzos
James Bidzos
CEO & Executive Chairman of the Board at VeriSign

We'll see where it goes. Of course, we'll work hard to support them. But that's something we can put some energy into and hopefully get a return. But I would say ARPU is a cyclical tailwind in a sense. There's less we can influence there, we can benefit from it, and we are seeing signs that that shift is occurring as well.

Ygal Arounian
Ygal Arounian
Analyst at Citigroup

Okay, very helpful. A quick follow-up on that. Is it just a shift in strategy or are you spending more on the marketing programs? Maybe just if you could talk about how that's embedded in the operating income guidance for the year?

George Kilguss
George Kilguss
Executive VP & CFO at VeriSign

I would say primarily it's a shift in strategy. Having said that, a lot of our programs are success based. So if they're extremely successful, we will spend more, but those should be accretive to us over time. But it really is a shift to strategy recognizing the changing channel and trying to support them in their different strategies.

Ygal Arounian
Ygal Arounian
Analyst at Citigroup

Okay.

James Bidzos
James Bidzos
CEO & Executive Chairman of the Board at VeriSign

And the expense of all those programs is baked into our guidance, I would just feel I should add.

Ygal Arounian
Ygal Arounian
Analyst at Citigroup

Right. Yes. Okay. All right. Helpful.

Ygal Arounian
Ygal Arounian
Analyst at Citigroup

I have two more, if you don't mind. One is, the gross new registrations number was, if my numbers are right, the largest one since 2Q twenty twenty one on the year over year growth, sorry. Can you talk about that, what you're seeing there? And that's a pretty impressive number in the quarter. I know the renewal rates are still a little bit below where they are normally, but if you look at the gross numbers, it looks like some of the cyclicality is already coming back here in 4Q.

George Kilguss
George Kilguss
Executive VP & CFO at VeriSign

Yes. As you point out, Ygal, we did 9,500,000 new registrations in the quarter. That was up sequentially and also up year over year. Again, I would credit some of early successes to some of the programs we launched in the fourth quarter that supported that. So we saw good engagement from some people.

George Kilguss
George Kilguss
Executive VP & CFO at VeriSign

Again, it's only a partial year and we think once we get further into the year, we'll get more channel partners engaging in these programs, but it's some early successes from those programs. So not huge numbers, but we are seeing positive trends. And as you saw and as Jim mentioned, the contractionship, the domain name base was $500,000 That's it was $1,100,000 down in the third quarter and $1,200,000 down in the year ago fourth quarter. So we saw some improvement here and that gives us some optimism here as we move into 2025.

Ygal Arounian
Ygal Arounian
Analyst at Citigroup

Yes, okay. Helpful. And then last, maybe a little bit of a bigger picture question. There's auctions coming up for some new generic TLDs later this year. Just wanted to get your thoughts on that, particularly with the kind of the way NGTLDs have taken share of total domains over the last decade since they've been introduced.

Ygal Arounian
Ygal Arounian
Analyst at Citigroup

Are you interested in bidding for new domains? Has your strategy changed in the kind of amount of domains you want to be a registry for? How should we think about that? And sorry, and within that, maybe you could just give us an update on that web because it's also a new TLD? Thanks.

James Bidzos
James Bidzos
CEO & Executive Chairman of the Board at VeriSign

I'm glad you mentioned .web because I was going to sort of include that in the answer. We did some years ago obviously move to acquire another TLD and expand our portfolio there. So first of all, let me answer them in reverse order. So with .web, we are still very interested in being the registry operator for .web. Although this process has taken quite a few years, we still want to be able to offer .web domains to our customers.

James Bidzos
James Bidzos
CEO & Executive Chairman of the Board at VeriSign

The process is still with ICANN and it's their IRP or roughly translates to arbitration process. And we understand what we've come to understand here recently is that there will be more briefings and hearings in 2025 with a planned final merits hearing currently slated for later 2025. And we think that they're continuing to drag this process out and to abuse ICANN's rules actually as the intention of the competing party. As far as the new round, we're considering looking at it, tossing ideas around, looking at the potential for applications, but we have nothing to share at this point.

Ygal Arounian
Ygal Arounian
Analyst at Citigroup

All right. Thanks for taking 15 questions from two analysts.

James Bidzos
James Bidzos
CEO & Executive Chairman of the Board at VeriSign

Anytime.

Operator

And that does conclude the question and answer session. I'll now turn the conference back over to Mr. David Atchley for final comments.

David Atchley
David Atchley
Vice President, Investor Relations & Corporate Treasurer at VeriSign

Thank you, operator. Please call the Investor Relations department with any follow-up questions from this call. Thank you for your participation. This concludes our call. Have a good evening.

Operator

Thank you. That does conclude today's conference. We do thank you for your participation. Have an excellent day.

Executives
    • David Atchley
      David Atchley
      Vice President, Investor Relations & Corporate Treasurer
    • James Bidzos
      James Bidzos
      CEO & Executive Chairman of the Board
    • George Kilguss
      George Kilguss
      Executive VP & CFO
Analysts
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Key Takeaways

  • Uninterrupted operations: VeriSign extended its 27-year record of .com and .net resolution, processing an average of 400 billion DNS transactions daily, while renewing its .com Registry Agreement with ICANN and Cooperative Agreement with NTIA.
  • Strong 2024 financials: Revenue grew 4.3% to $1.557 billion and operating income rose 5.7%, with $600 million in cash and $1.2 billion returned to shareholders via share repurchases.
  • Domain base trends: The .com/.net domain base fell 2.1% to 169 million names in 2024, though Q4 new registrations climbed to 9.5 million and renewal rates improved to 73.9%; the 2025 base is expected to decline 0.3–2.3% year-over-year.
  • Registrar marketing programs: New flexible marketing initiatives for registrars launched in late 2024 have received positive early feedback and are expected to help reverse domain base declines in 2025.
  • 2025 guidance: The company forecasts revenue of $1.615–1.635 billion, operating income of $1.095–1.115 billion, capital expenditures of $30–40 million, and a GAAP tax rate of 21–24%.
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Earnings Conference Call
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