Verisign Gets Registry Pact

Shares of VeriSign(VRSN Quote) bucked a down market Tuesday on news it landed a contract to manage a directory for radio-frequency identification tags.

Shares of VeriSign recently gained 77 cents, or 4.1%, to $19.50, while the Goldman Sachs Software Index fell 2.2% to 158.53.

Investors were clearly encouraged by Mountain View, Calif.-based VeriSign's announcement that it had been selected to operate the directory for RFID tags, a next-generation bar code that stores product information. Wal-Mart(WMT Quote) and the Department of Defense have set a goal for some suppliers to use RFIDs by 2005. ...