VeriSign reported a US$68 million loss this week that was made worse by the costs involved in restructuring and selling off non-core businesses. The report also noted there were approximately 87.3 million active domain names.

The reported net loss per share was $0.35 and compared with a loss of $4.7 million, or 2 cents a share, a year earlier. Projections of domain name registrations fell short, leaving investors to sell down shares.

VeriSign reported segment revenue for Internet Infrastructure and Identity Services (3IS), or the “core businesses” of Naming, SSL and IAS, of $233 million, up 4% from Q1 2008 and up 21% year over year.

VeriSign reported approximately 87.3 million active domain names at the end of the quarter for .com and .net, a 3% increase over Q1 2008 and 20% increase year over year.

VeriSign also announced additional infrastructure deployments in Europe in June with new sites in France and Belgium to fortify its Internet infrastructure as part of Project Titan.

VeriSign’s Naming Services business continues to stimulate demand for .com by seeking new distribution partners. VeriSign recently announced the first .com/.net ICANN accredited registrar in Mexico, Interplanet.

The VeriSign news release announcing the results is available from www.verisign.com/static/043991.pdf.