Commitments And Contingencies

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2019

Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Abstract]

Commitments and Contingencies

Purchase Obligations and Contractual Agreements

The following table represents the minimum payments required by Verisign under certain purchase obligations, leases, the .tv Agreement with the Government of Tuvalu, and the interest payments and principal on the Senior Notes:



	Purchase Obligations		Transition Tax		Operating Leases		.tv Agreement		Senior Notes		Total
	(In thousands)
2020	$	37,892	$	7,772	$	4,632	$	5,000	$	87,063	$	142,359
2021	1,856		7,772		2,576		5,000		87,063		104,267
2022	875		7,772		999		—		87,063		96,709
2023	379		14,573		791		—		819,719		835,462
2024	—		19,430		198		—		52,375		72,003
Thereafter	—		24,288		—		—		1,141,500		1,165,788
Total	$	41,002	$	81,607	$	9,196	$	10,000	$	2,274,783	$	2,416,588

The amounts in the table above exclude $229.2 million of income tax related uncertain tax positions, as the Company is unable to reasonably estimate the ultimate amount or time of settlement of those liabilities.

Verisign enters into certain purchase obligations with various vendors. The Company’s significant purchase obligations include firm commitments with telecommunication carriers and other service providers. The Company does not have any significant purchase obligations beyond 2023.

The Transition Tax relates to the U.S. income taxes payable on our accumulated foreign earnings pursuant to the Tax Act as discussed in Note 10. Income Taxes. As permitted in the Tax Act, the Company will continue to pay the Transition Tax in installments as shown in the table above.

The Company has an agreement with Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (“ICANN”) to be the sole registry operator for domain names in the .com registry through November 30, 2024. Under this agreement, the Company pays ICANN on a quarterly basis, $0.25 for each annual term of a domain name registered or renewed during such quarter. As of December 31, 2019, there were 145.4 million domain names in the .com registry. However, the number of domain names registered and renewed each quarter may vary significantly. The Company incurred registry fees for the .com registry of $34.7 million in 2019, $33.0 million in 2018, and $32.3 million in 2017. Registry fees for other top-level domains that we operate have been excluded from the table above because the amounts are variable or passed through to registrars.

The Company has an agreement with the Government of Tuvalu to be the sole registry operator for .tv domain names through December 31, 2021. Registry fees were $5.0 million in each of the last three years.

Verisign leases a small portion of its office space and a portion of its data center facilities under operating leases, the longest of which extends into 2024. Rental expenses under operating leases were not material in any period presented.

Off-Balance Sheet Arrangements

As of December 31, 2019 and 2018, the Company did not have any relationships with unconsolidated entities or financial partnerships, such as entities often referred to as structured finance or special purpose entities, which would have been established for the purpose of facilitating off-balance sheet arrangements or other contractually narrow or limited purposes. As such, the Company is not exposed to any financing, liquidity, market or credit risk that could arise if the Company had engaged in such relationships.

It is not the Company’s business practice to enter into off-balance sheet arrangements. However, in the normal course of business, the Company does enter into contracts in which it makes representations and warranties that guarantee the performance of the Company’s products and services. Historically, there have been no significant losses related to such guarantees.