VeriSign splashes out for .tv

And swoops wireless carrier. All in a day's work...

Web address registry VeriSign has snaffled-up .tv Corp to become the sole registry for .tv domain names. VeriSign paid $45m for the company, which last year hosted a large TV and radio marketing campaign to create interest in the .tv addresses. .tv was originally given to the island of Tuvalu as their country domain, it was then bought by a group of investors. However, analysts have speculated that although some 450,000 .tv sites have been registered, interest is not sufficient enough to sustain an independent organisation. VeriSign has also splashed out $340m on purchasing Savannah, a company that provides CRM services to wireless carriers. VeriSign has been on a spending spree of late and has made a total of six acquisitions over the last year. However, traders didn't take too kindly to the news of the acquisitions announced yesterday. VeriSign was down 4.55 per cent during early trading on the Nasdaq this morning. By mid-morning it was still in the red but back up to $34.03.