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September 25, 2001 — (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — VeriSign, Inc. (verisign.com), a leading provider of
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digital trust services, last night announced a definitive agreement to
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acquire publicly traded Illuminet Holdings, Inc. (illuminet.com) of Olympia,
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Washington. Illuminet is a leading provider of intelligent network and
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signaling services to communications carriers.
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Illuminet’s business will expand VeriSign’s digital trust services
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portfolio, which includes Web identity, authentication and payment services.
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These services are supported by an infrastructure relied upon to conduct
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over five billion domain name system look-ups, 100 million database queries,
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and millions of secure commerce and communications transactions.
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“Through this combination, service providers and enterprises will have the
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opportunity to use VeriSign’s highly scalable data and voice infrastructure
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to deliver new services and to improve the speed and efficiency of their
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current offerings,” said Stratton Sclavos, president and CEO of VeriSign.
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“Just as we created a trusted digital environment with our Internet-based
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services, this new integrated data-voice infrastructure will serve as the
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foundation for new types of services for the highly anticipated
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next-generation networks.”
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VeriSign will use its global infrastructure to accelerate the introduction
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of new services for Illuminet’s customers, such as secure short messaging,
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local number portability and Voice Over IP bridging. Illuminet will also
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enable VeriSign to deliver data-voice offerings such as WebNum, a navigation
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service that enables wireless phones to link specific numbers directly to
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Internet domain names; services using ENUM, which combines phone numbers and
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domain names to create one contact point for businesses and individuals; and
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a Global Voice Registry service, which enables callers to reach a business
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simply by speaking the company’s name.
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Under the terms of the agreement, VeriSign will exchange 0.93 shares or
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options of VeriSign common stock for each outstanding share and option of
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Illuminet and will assume Illuminet’s outstanding employee stock options.
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This will result in VeriSign issuing approximately 30.4 million shares for
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all issued and outstanding shares (including stock options) of Illuminet.
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Based on VeriSign’s closing stock price of $38.30 per share on Sept. 21,
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2001, this exchange ratio values the transaction at approximately $1.2
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billion. This acquisition will be accounted for as a purchase transaction
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and is expected to be completed late in the fourth quarter of 2001 or early
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in the first quarter of 2002. The acquisition has been approved by the board
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of directors of each company and is subject to various closing conditions,
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including government approvals and consent by the stockholders of Illuminet.
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Illuminet supports telecommunications networks used to make wireless calls,
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long-distance calls and Internet connections by ensuring that carriers can
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connect to each other and also enabling advanced calling features such as
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caller identification and local number portability.
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In the second quarter of 2001, Illuminet reported revenues of $47.2 million.
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It has approximately 500 employees. It is based in Olympia, Washington and
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also has a significant presence in Overland Park, Kansas and in Dallas,
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Texas. Operations will continue in those areas.
