Company struggles with outbound sales and social media products.
GoDaddy’s (NYSE: GDDY) revenue is topping expectations, but the company is laying off employees and restructuring its business because Covid-19 is impacting part of its business.
The company expects Q2 revenue to top its previous $790 million guidance by approximately 1%.
The restructuring is due to significant challenges with outbound sales efforts and its GoDaddy Social product, which is facing severe headwinds as its customers remain closed or in crisis mode.
814 employees — about 10% of its workforce — will be impacted, but many of them will be offered new roles.
The biggest impact will be in Austin, where the company plans to close both offices. GoDaddy entered the city with its acquisition of Main Street Hub, a do-it-for-me social service. The Main Street product is a higher ticket item than GoDaddy’s self-service tools. GoDaddy makes social media posts on behalf of companies. Many of those small businesses are now closed or significantly cutting back expenses.
331 sales employees in GoDaddy social will be let go. Additionally, the company is reducing the size of its Social Fulfillment and Customer Success teams by 120 team members.
GoDaddy is also shifting its sales efforts to a single office in Gilbert, Arizona. This will impact 134 salespeople in Iowa, who will be offered relocation to Arizona. Some will be offered the opportunity to move into inbound sales in Iowa.
The company is offering a generous exit package to those leaving the company. They will no longer work effective today but will be paid through September 1. They will then get at least four weeks of severance, and people who have worked at GoDaddy for three years or more will get additional severance. GoDaddy will pay healthcare costs through the end of the year for the impacted employees.
GoDaddy is taking a $15 million pre-tax restructuring charge for the payment of severance and related benefit costs and has determined that certain lease assets with a book value of approximately $58 million are impaired.
Outbound email and social media posting for clients.
So the spam division.
Don’t get me wrong, feel sorry for ppl losing their jobs but I heard good domains sell themselves.
More likely their jobs became autonomous. Robots going to rule the world! The terminator.
These people weren’t selling domains.
You’re right. GoDaddy saw my post.
My emails were going to his spam folder since early May!
This reply was meant to be in my message below.
I figured something like this was happening at GoDaddy, my new account representative has gone awol. He never replies to my emails.
I don’t think this impacts anything on the domain side
You’re right. GoDaddy saw my post.
My emails were going to his spam folder since early May!
That’s really unfortunate, especially coming so soon after acquisition. I wonder if MSH as an independent entity would have managed to pivot? Cash is short, but many small businesses have turned their social / digital channels into a lifeline and profit center as B&M closed. For example, a coffee shop down the street from me has used their social to host contests and games, sell gift cards and merch, offer drive through and delivery orders, etc… Social is the easiest way to remind their fans how they can help them survive.
“GoDaddy plans layoffs…”
It doesn’t sound like they are planning the layoffs; they are executing the layoffs post-haste!
Damn shame to see. I can’t say I didn’t see it coming. We just laid you off and made you feel good about it and made ourselves save face. Classy.
GoDaddy has been steadily expanding it’s off shore Sales and Support presence. I have been predicting a wholesale reduction in the domestic workforce, for a couple of years. Covid 19 is just a convenient vehicle to carry that move to the next level.
The people laid off in Austin managed social media for their clients. They did not sell domains or have anything to do with the domains business. They did not send out “spam.” They did social media posts (on Facebook, etc.) on behalf of their clients. That’s the service they paid for.
Also, someone I know who works in a different GD office says that they had previously guaranteed no layoffs for 90 days and they honored that, with these layoffs happening after that period.
I am surprised that more customers didn’t want GoDaddy Social’s product (I think that’s what it’s called) during the pandemic. Like Matt said, that could be a good way to stay engaged with customers.
Jerry, I know GoDaddy has grown global/non-US presence in sales and service, but I don’t think that they’ve cut any jobs in the US to do this. Do you know differently?
I am amused at the importance you give Godaddy in its content, highlighting the money etc., that the affected employees will receive in Austin, is this charity so that they are not homeless? Compared to the million dollar value of your acquisitions and the monthly net profit.
Godaddy is yet another company from the rest that has left more than 40 million people without a job in the US
If any restaurants out there were GoDaddy Social customers, we can pick up the ball that GoDaddy Social dropped!
Yep! And these lies about “severance” and offering other roles within the company are BS attempts to make the company look good too. Laying off employees during a pandemic while exceeding goals = profit! (They laid me off after 13+ years as the pandemic worsened and I complained that they were allowing extremely sick people into the workplace still… they told me that if the sick people around me were causing me such distress that I should use my own sick time (but couldn’t take my laptop home to continue working from home), then told me I was “abandoning the team” when I took their advice and went home sick… but again they refused to let us ywork from home… with our laptops….)