I don't understand what VeriSign receives in return for their kowtow (under the agreement, they basically waive any right to criticize ICANN's role).
As someone else noted, a perpetual cash cow in .COM with 7%/year escalator clause.
* ICANN signalled a positive outcome of a future Sitefinder review under the new process.
Nope, there's this complex process with outside experts to review any new proposed sitefinder like thing.
* ICANN promised to grant VeriSign the DNSSEC root and .ARPA maintenance without tender (the "Root Server Management Transition Agreement" goes into that direction; actually, the .ARPA stuff is the interesting one).
My reading is the opposite, ICANN will create the root zone now.
* VeriSign has recognized that they couldn't win in court, and suddenly want to play nice.
Quite possibly and don't be silly. More concretely, they probably decided they were unlikely to win more than this agreement gives them. R's, John