Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway will sell one-third of its stake in VeriSign.

VeriSign announced on Monday that Berkshire Hathaway will sell one-third of its more than $4 billion stake in VeriSign. Based in Reston, Virginia, VeriSign stated that the purpose of selling 4.3 million shares is to reduce Berkshire's ownership stake to below 10%, which would trigger regulatory obligations. According to the prospectus, Berkshire's ownership stake will decrease to 9.6% after the sale, and Buffett's company may sell an additional 515,032 shares to meet demand. VeriSign will not receive any proceeds from this sale. Regulatory filings show that as of March 31st, Berkshire held 13.29 million shares of VeriSign, representing approximately 14.2% of the company. Based on VeriSign's closing price of $305.98 on Monday, these shares were valued at approximately $4.07 billion. Berkshire began buying when VeriSign's stock price was less than one-sixth of this level. In after-hours trading, VeriSign fell 6% to $287.77. Berkshire had $347.7 billion in cash at the end of March and had been net sellers of stocks for 10 consecutive quarters before that month. Nevertheless, Berkshire started increasing its holdings of VeriSign shares as early as January. Berkshire's small investments in technology-related companies are often led by Buffett's portfolio managers, Todd Combs and Ted Weschler. JPMorgan Securities underwrote this VeriSign share sale.