VeriSign Inc., who have a business range from managing the ".com" and ".net" Domain Names registry to network security and connectivity, reported on Wednesday that fourth quarter sales rose 6 percent. The company however did not report full quarterly or annual results after reviewing its historical stock option grants. The company claimed the completed review, didn’t find any intentional wrongdoing by managers.

Hundreds of companies are currently being investigated via federal or internal scrutiny for potential back-dating of stock options, aiming to reap a higher take for the holder. The practice runs afoul of accounting laws if not properly disclosed, although it is not illegal.

The company will now restate results for the periods 2002 through 2005 and for the first quarter of 2006, so as to record stock-based compensation expenses of less than $200 million.

In the meantime Verisign have claimed sales in the three months ending Dec. 31, 2006, added 6 percent to $412.7 million, from $389.1 million booked in restated results for the comparable 2005 quarter. Those analysts polled by Thomson Financial were looking for higher sales of $417.1 million.

The full-year sales declined 2 percent to $1.58 billion from $1.61 billion in 2005, both in restated results, which is in line with Wall Street’s full-year estimate. The decrease reflects lower mobile content revenue for the first half of 2006.

Dana Evan, chief financial officer for Verisign, said "We faced some challenges to top line growth in 2006, namely the divestiture of the payment gateway business and some instability in the mobile content business in the first half of the year,"

Shares declined 38 cents to $23.52 in after hours trading after closing at $23.90 on the regular Nasdaq session.