VeriSign (VRSN)

VeriSign Completes Sale of Payment Gateway Business to eBay

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA – November 21, 2005 – VeriSign, Inc. (Nasdaq: VRSN), the leading provider of intelligent infrastructure services for the Internet and telecommunications networks, completed its previously announced sale of VeriSign’s payment gateway business to PayPal, an eBay company, on November 18, 2005. In accordance with the terms of the asset purchase agreement announced on October 10, 2005, PayPal paid $370 million in cash to VeriSign upon closing of the transaction.VeriSign will now account for the payment gateway business as a discontinued operation. VeriSign expects the revenue impact of the transaction to be a reduction in the range of $7-8 million to the previous Q4 2005 revenue guidance of $395–400 million, thereby reducing total company revenue guidance to $387–393 million for the quarter. On a non-GAAP basis, using a 30% effective tax rate, we anticipate that earnings per share for the fourth quarter will be impacted by $0.01, thereby reducing original guidance of $0.26 to $0.27 per fully-diluted share to $0.25 to $0.26 per fully-diluted share. Guidance for 2006 will be updated during the Q4 2005 earnings conference call.