NSI plans secondary stock offering

Network Solutions, the company that assigns Internet addresses, today announced a secondary common stock offering.

The company will place 4.58 million shares of its Class A common stock, currently held by Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), and other selling shareholders, on the market for $170 per share.

SAIC sold 4.5 million shares while another unnamed stockholder sold 80,000 shares. NSI said it will not receive any proceeds from the sale but has granted the underwriters a 30-day over-allotment option to purchase an additional 687,000 shares of its Class A common stock.

J.P. Morgan and Hambrecht & Quist are acting as joint-lead managers for the offering. PaineWebber and BancBoston Robertson Stephens are acting as co-managers.

After the offering, NSI will have 9.14 million shares of Class A common stock outstanding, excluding any shares sold to cover over-allotments.

NSI, was founded in 1979, pioneered the development of registering Web addresses ending in ".com," ".net," ".org," and ".edu." The company also provides enterprise network services that focus on assisting large commercial organizations in the evolution and management of their enterprise networks.