April 1, 2015 – Web hosting company GoDaddy Inc has priced its initial public offering at US$20 per share, above it previously indicated US$17 to US$19 per share range, valuing it at around US$4.5 billion, including debt, according to underwriting sources.
At this price, the IPO would raise US$440 million. A GoDaddy spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
GoDaddy, whose Super Bowl commercials once featured race car driver Danica Patrick and supermodel Bar Rafaeli but have since toned down its advertising, added more than 1.1 million customers last year.
The company was founded in 1997 and in 2011 was acquired by a private equity consortium led by KKR & Co LP and Silver Lake Partners LP for US$2.25 billion, including debt.
It has since expanded from its roots in internet domains to provide services to small and medium-sized businesses such as website building and web hosting.
GoDaddy’s revenue has risen about 52 percent in last three years to about US$1.4 billion and net loss has narrowed to US$143.3 million in 2014, from US$279 million in 2012.
The company had about US$1.3 billion in long term debt on an adjusted basis, as of Dec. 31.
It competes with Endurance, United Internet, Web.com and companies like Amazon.com Inc , Google Inc and Microsoft Corp , which have recently entered the domain name registration business.
GoDaddy filed for an IPO in 2006 and later withdrew it, citing unfavorable market conditions, the same year Google Inc launched its free web hosting service, Google Page Creator.
Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan Securities and Citigroup were lead underwriters to the IPO.