GoDaddy Shares Rise 34 Percent in Wall Street Debut

GoDaddy Inc's shares rose as much as 34
percent in their debut on Wednesday, valuing
the Web hosting and domain registration
company at up to $5.48 billion, including
debt.
The company raised $460 million after its
initial public offering of 23 million class A
shares was priced at $20 per share, above
the expected range of $17-$19.
GoDaddy sold all the shares in the offering.
The company's rivals include Endurance
International Group Inc and Web.com Group
Inc as well as Amazon.com Inc and Google
Inc , which have recently entered the domain
registration business.
GoDaddy, the sponsor of race car driver
Danica Patrick, had about 13 million
customers across 37 countries as of
December 31.
The company manages about 59 million
domains, nearly a fifth of the world's total
domains, it said in its IPO filing.
Founded in 1997 by Bob Parsons, GoDaddy
is led by Blake Irving, a former chief product
officer at Yahoo Inc.
GoDaddy filed for an IPO in 2006 and later
withdrew it due to unfavourable market
conditions. The company was acquired in
2011 by a private equity consortium led by
KKR & Co LP and Silver Lake Partners LP
for $2.25 billion, including debt.
Parsons will hold nearly 24 percent of
GoDaddy's class A shares and 40 percent of
class B shares after the offering.
GoDaddy's revenue has risen about 52
percent in the past three years to about $1.4
billion. Its net loss narrowed to $143.3
million in 2014 from $279 million in 2012.
The Scottsdale, Arizona-based company,
known for its controversial ads, attracted the
ire of animal rights activist earlier this year
with its Super Bowl commercial featuring a
website selling puppies.
The stock opened at $26.15 and touched a
high of $26.84 on the New York Stock
Exchange on Wednesday.
Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan Securities and
Citigroup were the lead underwriters for the
IPO.
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