The Ins & Outs Of The GoDaddy IPO Plan

According to a story first reported by The Wall Street Journal, GoDaddy is preparing for an IPO.

GoDaddy, the internet domain registrar and web host, is now the largest internet domain registrar in the world.

The company is owned by a consortium of private equity groups including Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, better known as KKR partners, Silver Lake, and smaller firm, Technology Crossover Ventures.

The group purchased the company for $2.25 billion in 2011, and since, has worked to expand its product offerings for small and medium-sized businesses and increase profitability for its web hosting business.

According to the WSJ report, banks haven’t been selected for the IPO and the company hasn’t decided on how much money it will raise. No value has been placed on the company since its purchase 2011.

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In 2006, GoDaddy filed for an IPO, but pulled out citing unfavorable market conditions after it was told that it would have to take a 50 percent haircut—an amount subtracted from the par value of assets being used as collateral, according to Reuters.

GoDaddy has faced its share of controversy over the years. Its ads that feature stars like Danica Patrick and Jillian Michaels in less than family friendly rolls have ruffled feathers and the company’s founder, Bob Parsons, was the center of controversy when he shot an elephant in Zimbabwe.

Parsons remains chairman of the company but the new owners appointed Blake Irving to the CEO role in 2012 in an attempt to clean up the company’s image.

If the rumor turns out to be true, GoDaddy will be one of many high profile tech IPOs in the pipeline for this year. Camera maker GoPro confidentially filed its IPO in February allowing it to not reveal its financials until later in the process. Twitter TWTR also filed confidentially.

Other IPOs scheduled for this year include King, the maker of the hit game Candy Crush Saga, cloud storage companies Dropbox and Box, and Asia-based company Alibaba, which some people say could be the largest IPO ever.

Disclosure: At the time of this writing, Tim Parker had no position in the above named companies.