THE fall US Internet share prices has knocked some R4,55-billion ($700-million) off the sale price of Thawte Consulting, owned by Cape Town billionaire Mark Shuttleworth. Shuttleworth’s earnings from the sale of Thawte, to Internet security giant VeriSign, would initially have amounted to R7,47-billion ($1,15bn), but he says that he will now earn only some R2,92-billion ($450m) from the transaction. Shuttleworth’s company Thawte Consulting, together with VeriSign, supplies digital certification to companies to enable secure electronic transactions.