SiliconBeat

True to plan, VeriSign founder Jim Bidzos said today that he’s handing over the reins to a new CEO at the Mountain View company, which manages the naming infrastructure for Internet domains like .com and .net, and also sells online security and identity verification services.

The new CEO is Mark McLaughlin, a VeriSign veteran who’s been serving as president and chief operating officer since January. Bidzos had agreed last summer to serve as interim chief executive after former CEO William Roper resigned unexpectedly.

Bidzos has been overseeing an effort to divest a number of unrelated operations, including telecom routing and other services that the company decided were too far afield from its core businesses. He said today that VeriSign has sold 11 of the 13 “non-core businesses” that it has wanted to spin off.

Also today, the company reported a profit of $35 million on revenue of $257 million in its most recent quarter, coming in slightly better than analysts had expected for sales but slightly below analysts’ predictions for earnings per share.

VeriSign’s board also gave acting CFO Brian Robins the formal title of executive vice president and chief financial officer. Bidzos will remain executive chairman.