VeriSign Sells Minority Share of Mobile Entertainment JV to News Corp. For About $200 million

Verisign, Inc. (VRSN: News ), a provider of Internet infrastructure services, announced Tuesday the sale of its minority share of the mobile entertainment joint venture to media company News Corp. (NWS,NWS.A: News , NWS.AX, NWSLV.AX) for approximately $200 million.

The joint venture was formed, when in 2007, News Corp. acquired controlling stake in Jamba, Verisign's wholly-owned subsidiary. Jamba was subsequently merged with the Fox Mobile Entertainment unit.

Commenting on the sale, Jim Bidzos, executive chairman of the board of directors, president and chief executive officer on an interim basis of VeriSign said, "This sale is an important step in our effort to focus on our core businesses in Internet infrastructure."

VRSN is currently trading at $24.91, up $0.96 or 4.01%, on a volume of 5.36 million shares on Nasdaq. NWS is currently trading at $10.74, down $0.06 or 0.56%, on a volume of 4.92 million shares on the NYSE. NWS-A is currently trading at $10.59, down $0.08 or 0.75%, on a volume of 12.07 million shares on the NYSE.NWS.AX is currently trading at $14.89, up $0.60 or 4.20%, on a volume of 3.58 million shares on ASX. Shares of NWSLV.AX are currently trading at $14.75, up $0.75 or 5.36%, on ASX.