World’s largest domain name registrar supposedly no longer for sale.
The Wall Street Journal, which originally reported that domain name registrar GoDaddy was for sale, is now saying the company is off the market.
The Journal reports that the sales process was cut off last week. A number of private equity companies were in the mix, and the story suggests a sale price of $1.5 billion to $2.0 billion was possible.
So Bob Parsons will continue to control the company. He just made another move that he wouldn’t be able to do (under the company’s name) if he sold out: Go Daddy recently donated $1 million to the George W. Bush presidential library. Go Daddy founder Bob Parsons isn’t shy about leaning to the right.
Although I suppose Parsons could easily make a donation by himself instead of on behalf of the company.
Landon White says
ALWAYS FUN TO SAY I TOLD YOU SO!
I posted this early LAST MONTH… 🙂
(PAST POSTING)
Landon White
September 11th, 2010 | 5:46 am
O.K. Gents,lets be Real,
If its not just a “Big Promo Rumor
and there is a actual auction….
The following will prevail:
Of course the Internet clerk will report
a crash near the end of the auction, and then all concerned will say it was rigged and foul.. and then… after an in-depth review and careful consideration it will be found unfair to all concerned and thus, shall be ordered re-scheduled, and the auction is to start anew at
a latter date…
Now as the story unfolds….
good ole slick Godaddy (Motorcycle Bob) shall decide not sell after all BUT will have received a “Million Bucks in FREE Promo” across mainstream media and the internet. I guess you could say “Bob Parsons” is the King of Creative Marketing”
after all … he has made a fortune already out of being just.. the Daddy of them all!
Einstein says
Not exactly a good move by Bob, pulling the plug way into the bidding. But then, if it’s a good deal 2+ years from now, the bidders will forget and forgive.
Apparently some were willing to pay as $1.5-$2 Billion so Bob would have definitely gotten a clean Billion+ from it. Maybe he thinks that he can get more a year or two from now if the economy picks up?
mansour says
The due diligence must have revealed that Godaddy’s upside potential is very limited for years they have been generating cash with no margin of profit by giving 25% and 30% coupon discounts just to push the income generated to its highest possible level. You cannot sell product below cost and expect to be profitable. I can guarantee you two things – First – the next time we hear about the sale of Godaddy will be when it is actually sold. Second, their prices for their product will be in line with other registrars, with no discount coupons.
Domainers Gate #1 directory says
.
two possible reasons of the GoDaddy decision could be:
1. the price reached by the (hidden) auction hasn’t been the amount wanted, or…
2. they not really wanted to sell the company but just to have a Press extra-hype
Domainers Gate #1 directory says
.
one good news (for us) of this bad news (for GoDaddy) is that we should not see the GoDaddy prices to grow (as probably would done by a GoDaddy buyer to cover the buying costs)
Grant says
mansour,
Domainers who use coupon codes make up a small percentage of their business.
Regular users and businesses use Godaddy, and not only pay full price, but also most of them buy additional addons which in most cases have high profit margins.
steve says
I was right first.
knew he wouldn’t sell.
mansour says
Grant,
From my experience this is not the case. I was contacted a few weeks back by a procurement officer of a major company to register a couple hundred domain names with different extensions, through one of my websites, in order for me to match godaddys offer, I would make a total of $23.00 over a period of two years.I figured that I could survive without participating in this procurement. GoDaddy can enjoy adding 200 domain names to their portfolio with no profit, but for me it is not worth the hassle.
Mwaaaaaa says
What do you want to bet that when any interested parties said “Let’s dig through the books, interview employees, and, take a deeper look at all those pending lawsuits (including a class action suit by former call center reps)”, Bob no longer wanted to “share” information. Cash flow right now DOESN’T mean positive cash flow in the future. Wall Street is not stupid. The stated valuation of this company is all in Bob’s dreams until Bob can cough up audited financial statements for the last 5 years. The media is snowed by Bob’s undocumented claims (and a few Madoff-like charitable contributions); even the WSJ’s reporter is too green to understand the business/financial questions to ask. Sad.