Network Solutions is making the most of its last few months as a domain-name registration monopoly.
The Virginia company in charge of registering .com, .net, .org, and .edu domain names said Wednesday that revenues and profits were up sharply in the fourth quarter of 1998, as it registered a record 621,000 new Internet names, up 137 percent from the fourth quarter 1997.
Network Solutions reported a net profit of US$3.7 million, or 22 cents per share, in the quarter, up from 11 cents a share a year ago and beating the First Call consensus estimate of 20 cents per share.
Network Solutions has long been the sole holder of a government contract to register the most commonly used Internet domain names and maintain a database of those names. It was due to face competition last year, but the government renewed its contract while the newly formed Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) figured out a competitive system.
On Monday, ICANN proposed splitting the domain-name registration business into two parts. Under the plan, a single company -- probably Network Solutions -- would retain the central database of domains, but the registration of new domains would be open to competition by additional registrars.
That news sent the Network Solutions stock (NSOL) down sharply on Tuesday.
ICANN has said it would like to have five companies involved in a test of a new system by April.
