VeriSign, Inc.

Good day, everyone. Welcome to VeriSign's second quarter 2021 earnings conference call. Today's conference is being recorded. Recording of this call is not permitted unless pre-authorized. At this time, I'd like to turn the conference over to Mr. David Ashley, Vice President of Investor Relations and Corporate Treasurer. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, Operator. Welcome to VeriSign's second quarter 2021 earnings call. Joining me are Jim Bizos, Executive Chairman and CEO, Todd Strube, President and COO, 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. 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 public disclosure. The financial results in today's call and the matters we will be discussing today include gap results and two non-gap measures used by VeriSign, adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow. Gap-to-non-gap reconciliation information is appended to the slide presentation, which can be found on the investor relations section of our website, available after this call. 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.

Thanks, David, and good afternoon, everyone. I'm pleased to report another solid quarter of operational and financial performance for VeriSign. During the second quarter, we saw continued demand for our domain names, including year-over-year growth and new registrations from some of our foreign geographies. During the second quarter, we processed 11.7 million new registrations, and the domain name base increased by 2.59 million names. At the end of June, the domain name base in .com and .net totaled 170.6 million, consisting of 157 million names for .com and 13.6 million names for .net, with a year-over-year growth rate of 5.2%. Although renewal rates are not fully measurable until 45 days after the end of the quarter, we believe that the renewal rate for the second quarter of 2021 will be approximately 75.3%. This preliminary rate compares to 72.8% achieved in the second quarter of 2020 and 76% last quarter. As we look at full year 2021, we now expect a domain name-based growth rate of between 4.7% and 6%. This range reflects the strength we continue to observe in new additions to the base and our outlook for the balance of the year. During the quarter, we continue to deliver solid financial results while maintaining, investing in, and evolving our critical infrastructure and complying with the high operational standards required by our ICANN agreements. Our critical infrastructure enables us to reliably and accurately provide the DNS navigation service, which people around the world depend on, for commerce, education, healthcare, and person-to-person connection. Just last week, we marked 24 years of uninterrupted availability of our .com and .net domain name resolution system. Our financial and liquidity position remains stable with $1.12 billion in cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities at the end of the quarter. Share repurchases during the second quarter totaled $172 million for 797,000 shares. At quarter end, $737 million remained available and authorized under the current share repurchase program, which has no expiration. We continually evaluate the overall liquidity and investing needs of the business and consider the best uses for our cash, including potential share repurchases. Regarding .web, on May 20th, a final decision was issued in the Independent Review Process, or IRP. The final decision rejected Affilius' petition to nullify the results of the .web auction and rejected Affilius' request to be awarded .web. Also, as we had requested, the final decision directed ICANN's Board of Directors to review the objections, including objections as to Affilius' conduct, and to make a determination on the delegation of .web. After the final decision was issued, however, Affilius filed an application requesting that the IRP panel interpret and amend its final decision. We believe Affilius' application is without merit and we expect the panel to rule on it in the fourth quarter of 2021. Thereafter, we expect ICANN's board will proceed consistent with the final decision and it will make a determination on the delegation of .web. The updated guidance we are providing today does not include revenue or expenses related to .web. And now I'd like to turn the call over to George.