VeriSign (VRSN)
from Unconventional Wealth
Internet addresses—also known as domains—are examples of virtual real estate, each of which can be bought. The early Internet moguls realized this and gobbled up high-quality names.
For example, Download.net was originally bought in 1996. Adam Dick acquired it for $3,000 in 2001 off eBay and sold it for six figures to Softpedia in 2013. Rick Schwartz’s $4 million deal was for property.com and properties.com. In 2012, investing.com sold for $2.5 million, and the record holder is from 2010—insurance.com, which went for a staggering $35.6 million!
There are new opportunities as a wealth of Internet domain names are opening up. And this company sits on the top of the heap.
Those are astounding numbers, and the original owners of those names didn’t pay a fraction of that amount. In fact, most domains are available for well under $100—with the most popular addresses going to auction. In the first half of 2014 (the latest available numbers), over half of all sales were over $500.
If the Internet is the modern-day gold rush—and make no mistake, that’s exactly what it is—then holders of virtual real estate are the Levi Strausses of this boom.
The truth of the matter is the low-hanging fruit in ordinary domains has already been plucked.
Regular words and phrases have been gone for two decades.
ICANN—the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers—is a nonprofit responsible for the naming protocols on the Internet, and in 2011, ICANN decided to allow a whole new host of generic TLDs—or gTLDs. Instead of everyone trying to fit into .com, we’re going to have a near-limitless number of endings for addresses.
Part of the value of the old names was scarcity— supply couldn’t keep up with demand. It couldn’t come close. That’s why domains could go for seven figures. ICANN is rolling out only a few of these new gTLDs at a time.
And right now, you can invest in one of the strongest names in this entire industry. VeriSign (VRSN) is one of the strongest—yet least known—companies in the Internet world. VeriSign already is a TLD—.com.
No matter what happens with new gTLDs, .com will continue to be a strong presence online. And VeriSign holds a monopoly on the best TLD on the Web. Every year, every .com address pays VeriSign for the privilege of using the TLD. Every year, that assured income—with minimal overhead—leads to breathtaking profit margins—55% last year, in fact. You just don’t see that kind of profit margin anywhere.
But VeriSign isn’t resting on its laurels. It recognizes the opportunity that the new gTLDs represent. And it’s planning to become the registrar for a number of them.
And on top of that, VeriSign offers all sorts of related services. For instance, if you want to own your own registrar, VeriSign can help you set it up and help you run it.
There is no better company in this sector. It has a monopoly on .com. It has the registrar expertise that will soon be in great demand. And—because the overhead is so minimal for a company of its size—VeriSign has the sort of profit margins that make investors drool.
With a monopoly on .com domains and a growing stable of gTLDs, VeriSign will continue to make money no matter how quickly alternate addresses take off. Buy VeriSign up to $57.50.
Ryan Cole, Unconventional Wealth, www.contrarianprofits.com/contact-us/, 888-811-9492, February 2015