GoDaddy IPO and Stock Market Value: Web Hosting Company Files $100 Million IPO, Tries Luck Second Time Around
Web hosting and registration service company GoDaddy, Inc. has filed its plans to raise $100 million in an initial public offering with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday. Simultaneously, the company also announced that founder Bob Parsons is stepping down from his position as executive chairman. However, he will maintain a position as a board member. He had previously stepped down from being the company's CEO in 2011. Parsons, who is seen as a controversial figure due to the company's sexually themed commercials, still directly owns 28 percent of the company.
GoDaddy further seeks to provide new details of its financial condition after suffering years of losses dating back to 2009. Its finances show that the company has not made any profit since that year. In 2012, GoDaddy suffered a loss of $279 million and bled another $200 million in 2013. This year has not been promising either, as the company lost $51 million in the first quarter. According to CNN Money, GoDaddy is recovering from a bad stretch. Because of being mired in debt in 2011, three private equity firms had to come to their rescue, namely Silver Lake Partners, KKR & Co. (KKR), and Technology Crossover Ventures. According to Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, these companies were reported to have paid at least $2.25 billion to buy major stakes in the company.
Despite financial setbacks and fierce competition from other web hosting providers and domain registrar such as HostGator and Bluehost, GoDaddy is showing steady growth with its customer base, which is expanding at a rate of about 13 percent a year. In 2013, the number of its customers had reached 11.6 million, while the total number of registered websites also grew to 1.4 million in the same year. These numbers point to business potential in the near future. The company has also expanded its business to Latin America through the use of the .UNO domain, targeting the growing wave of Latin American internet commerce.
This is not the first time the company has attempted to go public since it already tried filing in 2006, to no avail. It backed out after not getting the pricing it wanted. No details have been released on the number of shares or what the company ticker will be.
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