Go Daddy Sold For $2.25 Billion, Says Source

SAN FRANCISCO -- The parent company of GoDaddy.com, a top registrar of Internet domain names, has been sold to a group of private investment firms for $2.25 billion, a person familiar with the transaction told The Associated Press.

Go Daddy Group Inc.'s sale to KKR, Silver Lake and Technology Crossover Ventures comes as the company expects to top $1.1 billion in revenue this year because expanding Internet use has fueled the creation of more websites and the "domains" needed to help find them. Go Daddy announced the sale late Friday. A person close to the transaction, who asked to remain anonymous because of not being authorized to speak publicly, told the AP the sale price.

A fact sheet accompanying the release indicated that Go Daddy's revenue has grown by more than 20 percent in each of the past several years.

The Go Daddy Group Inc. was founded in 1997 by Bob Parsons, who continues to serve as its CEO. The company, based in Scottsdale, Ariz., manages more than 48 million domain names, and sells other Internet-related technologies.

Comments

[Cindy Neoneighteen]

02:37 PM on 08/28/2011

Bill Parson's y=the guy who traveled to Zimbabwe recently to shoot an elephant for a trophy. Now he's trying to morph this selfish act of slaughter into some selfless act of charity and now he sold his company ...
No more ElephantTropies Please!

[gypsynomad]

04:58 PM on 07/04/2011

Oh oh, should I start worring now...

[aznurse]

03:14 PM on 07/04/2011

they are VERY good to their employees, I hope it stays that way.

[kewps]

11:49 AM on 07/04/2011

Oh, lord-not KKR for crying out loud!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-u-k2Lpp0A&feature=related

[repugnicansfearme]

11:12 AM on 07/04/2011

But how much for this woman? I want to buy this Danica.

[kewps]

11:50 AM on 07/04/2011

She's priceless. If we could get her, maybe Jillian Michaels would come as a bonus.

[repugnicansfearme]

01:34 PM on 07/04/2011

Yes, please. I want to pay cash for Danica and toss in Ms. Michaels. That is all I need.

[FlemmHigg]

11:26 PM on 07/03/2011

GoDaddy Facts:
* 48,000,000 domains under management
* 10,000,000 customers
* $1,000,000+ revenue
* 50+% global marketshare of domains
* World's largest web host
* World's leading issuer of SSL certificates

$2,250,000,000 seems like a bargain in the long run.
Apparently, the experts at the PE Firms agree.
Worth watching to see what happens next.

[repugnicansfearme]

11:13 AM on 07/04/2011

How many employees/jobs?

[CaBrit]

09:30 PM on 07/03/2011

I seem to be the odd one out here, but I have over 450 domains with godaddy and never had a problem. Their tech support is here in the US, and whenever I call them, I get right through and they solve my issue.

I host my websites on my own equipment, so I can't comment on that side of their business, but I do all my registration and secure certs with godaddy and never had a problem.

[Roburt]

01:31 PM on 07/04/2011

Registration and SSL are extremely simple and basic tasks that these companies provide. If GoDaddy can't even do that right, then they would be worse than I thought.

The point is that whenever you use GoDaddy, you're bombarded with 90% ads in your UI, and you really have to go through several pages of ads just to get to anywhere you want to go. For example, just accessing the file manager is a complete chore.

I'm going to assume that you haven't tried anybody else, because everybody else is better than any service that GoDaddy provides.

[demilieu]

01:08 PM on 07/03/2011

Huh? Go who???

[OzzieVoodoo]

11:32 AM on 07/03/2011

Maybe they will get rid of those commercials with the LOT LIZARD and her zippers.

[JackTheSkipper]

11:24 AM on 07/03/2011

I only hope the new owners keep the current low prices for SSL certificates and domain name registration. Low prices were the reason Godaddy got so many businesses. For example, a domain registration at Network Solutions would cost you $35, whereas Godddy would charge only $10. When I transferred all of my domains from Network Solutions to Godaddy, I pointed out the huge price difference. I was told Network Solutions provides better customer support and that's why their services are expensive. I manage 30 SSL certs and 15 domain names, never had any issue with the Godaddy's support.

[Roburt]

01:43 PM on 07/04/2011

Bluehost can host domains for $5.95 a month. 1&1 hosts for $5. You're comparing GoDaddy's price to Network Solution, which is notorious for being by far the most expensive but also provide one of the best services available.

[JackTheSkipper]

07:02 PM on 07/04/2011

I am talking about domain registration and SSL certificates, not hosting. Not all hosting service providers can do domain registration. They usually register their customer's domain with companies like GoDaddy.

[Muhd Hanis]

09:39 AM on 07/03/2011

go Daddy is one good hosting company but the whois lookup is not good
http://yuppygadget.com

[Blackstonia]

07:57 AM on 07/03/2011

I prefer Network Solutions because GoDaddy runs their customers around in circles in a effort to keep them from switching registrars.

[Julian23]

09:45 PM on 07/02/2011

I think it was a good purchase.

However, speaking to the larger issue of this acquisition, it troubles me a tiny bit more having discovered that it was purchased by a number of investment firms.

The conspiracy theorist in me sees this as yet another instance proving the consolidation of power by the upper elite exists. Now, board members of these various investment firms can also appoint themselves as board members to Go Daddy. The pattern will proceed in this way. I find it to be a conflict of interest when you have board members that are in the board of more than one company.

I'm not trying to come off as some sort of instigator. I understand that this happens everyday as the normal course of business. I just needed to vent

[Cy Khormaee]

11:22 PM on 07/02/2011

For what its worth most of these companies just buy to resell, so I doubt this will be a long term arrangement (Silver Lake was last in the news for the sale of Skype to Microsoft having held it for only a couple years).

[Blackstonia]

08:00 AM on 07/03/2011

GoDaddy will be drained of cash and cast off, a dry husk, a shell of it's former self. Customers should start switching registrars now.

[FindStrippers]

06:02 PM on 07/02/2011

Would be nice to have a part of that company...

[ikenwan]

05:43 PM on 07/02/2011

And Borders, a bookstore chain, gets a $215.1 million offering. The irony.

[born 2b different]

11:52 AM on 07/03/2011

Borders is in bankruptcy and loaded with hundreds of millions in debt, and has a business model that doesn't work anymore.