Incorporated in 1996 in Denver, Colorado, it is a wholly owned subsidiary of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) Communications, which acquired the company in 2000.

The company idea, including the initial business plan and pitch deck, began in the halls of Norwest Venture Partners after several months of market diligence and target acquisition discussions.

In order to validate the strategy and raise capital, Brett Sharenow and Lynn Morris from Morris Associates were hired to create the first detailed engineering-driven financial model consisting of ISPs, core network infrastructure, and server farms, allowing Verio to raise substantial funds ($1.1 billion) from principal founders, several top tier VC's, NTT and institutional investors with which to purchase target acquisitions and build out centralized back office, support, national sales and infrastructure.

To placate these concerns, NTT agreed to form a separate division within the company staffed only by U.S. citizens to handle any work in support of government investigations.

As a result, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States recommended that President Clinton allow the $5.5 billion purchase to proceed.

Some of the companies purchased by Verio were leading pioneers in the internet industry (Digital Nation, NorthWestNet), representing the first wave of commercial ISP access and hosting in regional markets around the US and Europe.