Network Solutions Inc (NSI), the exclusive domain name registry for the moST popular domain name extensions, including .com, lost its chief executive Gabe Battista to Tel-Save Holdings Inc yesterday in a surprise move, taking Battista back to his telecommunications roots. Battista will move over at the start of next month, and NSI will be run by a combination of its chairman Michael Daniels and chief financial officer Bob Korzeniewski. Daniels will handle the executive decision making side, while Korzeniewski will add the role of chief operating officer until a replacement can be found. Daniels said Battista informed the company at the close of business on Friday that he was leaving. The search got underway yesterday. He says they will look first at pure internet companies, followed by e-commerce and lastly telecommunications firms. When Battista was recruited from Cable & Wireless USA in October 1996, Daniels said there were not the internet executives around that had enough experience to run a company like NSI. The loss of Battista comes at a critical time for the firm, as it recently secured an extension to the registry agreement it has had with the US government for five-and-a-half years that will keep its monopoly in that area until September 2000. But its registrar business, the retail side that those wishing to register domain name interact with, will be opened up to unlimited competition by June 1 1999. During that time NSI is due to hand over software and technical specifications to the US government to enable those new registrars, to interface with NSI registry for .com, .net, .org and .edu domain names. The first stage of that was completed when NSI handed over initial specs to the Department of Commerce on November 1. Senior VP Don Telage will continue to lead the negotiations with the government. Daniels, like so many of NSI’s board members, is also an executive of its parent company, Science Applications International Corp (SAIC), which acquired NSI in March 1995 and still holds about 75% of the stock. Daniels and Korzeniewski, who also came to NSI from SAIC, were the team that executed the acquisition, according to Daniels. And while he did not rule out an SAIC person stepping into Battista’s shoes, it seems unlikely. NSI, which went public in September 1997, saw its stock close down $3.125, or 4.5% at $65.375.
