VeriSign, Inc.

Good day, everyone. Welcome to VeriSign's first quarter 2022 earnings 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 Atchley, Vice President of Investor Relations and Corporate Treasurer. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, Operator. Welcome to VeriSign's first quarter 2022 earnings call. Joining me are Jim Bidzos, 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 a public disclosure. The financial results in today's call and the matters we will be discussing today include GAAP results and two non-GAAP measures used by VeriSign, adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow. GAAP to non-GAAP 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. Thank you, David.

Good afternoon to everyone, and thank you for joining us. As global reliance on online services continues to increase, so does the importance of delivering uninterrupted and accurate DNS resolution. Our focus remains on operating, protecting, and enhancing our critical internet infrastructure, and I thank all of our employees who continuously execute our complex mission. I'm pleased to report another solid quarter of financial and operational performance for VeriSign. Revenues grew 7.2% year over year, while EPS grew 7.5% year-over-year. At the end of March, the domain name base in .com and .net totaled 174.7 million domain names consisting of 161.3 million names for .com and 13.4 million names for .net with a year-over-year growth rate of 4%. During the first quarter, we processed 10.2 million new registrations and the domain name base increased by 1.23 million names. The final renewal rate for the fourth quarter of 2021 was 74.8% compared to 73.5% for the same quarter of 2020. Although renewal rates are not fully measurable until 45 days after the end of the quarter, we believe that the renewal rate for the first quarter of 2022 will be approximately 75.9%. This preliminary renewal rate compares to 76% achieved in the first quarter of 2021 and 74.8% last quarter. We continue to see growth in the domain name base and demand for our domain names. While there are many factors that drive demand for domain names, we have seen lower new units in the first quarter as a result of a combination of factors. These include the component of growth attributable to the pandemic, which appears to have subsided, as well as recent global macroeconomic factors. For calendar 2022, We now expect a domain name based growth rate of between 1.75% and 3.5%. This updated range reflects the various trends we currently see in our business and our expectation for continued domain name based growth. Our financial and liquidity position remains stable with $1.2 billion in cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities at the end of the quarter. Share repurchases during the first quarter totaled $196 million for 895,000 shares. At quarter end, $893 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. Turning to .web, as we noted on our last call, ICANN's board directed one of its standing committees to review the independent review panel's final decision and provide the board with its findings. We understand that process is ongoing and we don't have any additional information to provide at this time. As we have said before, we continue to look forward to becoming the .web registry operator and establishing it alongside .com and .net as an additional option for businesses and individual end users worldwide. Now I'd like to turn a call over to George.