WebProNews

The world's third largest registry is up for grabs as VeriSign's rights to .net are set to expire on June 30, 2005.

According to NewsFactor.com, there are three companies besides VeriSign that plan on making an effort to acquire the rights to the domain. "They are NeuStar, a Sterling, Virginia, company that runs .biz, and Afilias, based in Dublin, which manages .info.

A nonprofit concern based in Frankfurt, Denic, which manages Germany's eight million registered .de domain names, has also indicated that it is planning to bid." ICANN will be overseeing the selection process.

Currently, .net has over 5 million domain names attached to it, which according to NewsFactor's article, "translates daily into millions of page views, 155 billion e-mail messages and some $1.4 million in commercial transactions, according to VeriSign, the company in Mountain View, California, that manages .com, as well as .net."

ICANN's decision about which company gains the rights to .net will be on July 1.

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