GoDaddy sells $800m stake to private investor firm

GoDaddy logo
(Image credit: Shutterstock/Postmodern Studio)

American hedge fund Starboard Value acquired a 6.5% stake in GoDaddy, a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has shown. 

The deal had cost the fund approximately $800 million, according to the Wall Street Journal.

According to the filing, the fund believed shares in the web hosting group were "undervalued" and represented "an attractive investment opportunity".

Fall and rise

Even though the price of GoDaddy’s shares has been steadily climbing for the last five years, the sentiment shifted last summer, when the price dropped from a July high of $90.33, to a November low of 65.70. 

In November, news broke of a data breach at website builder WordPress which affected 1.2 million of GoDaddy’s users - and also pushed the company's stock price downwards to bottom at $65.70.

In the last 24 hours, the news of the acquisition propelled the price upwards, erasing almost all of the recent downside movement. At press time, the price is $82.35, but still down some 8.8% from its July high.

Pushing GoDaddy to do better

"Depending upon overall market conditions, other investment opportunities available to the Reporting Persons, and the availability of shares at prices that would make the purchase or sale of shares desirable, the Reporting Persons may endeavor to increase or decrease their position in the Issuer through, among other things, the purchase or sale of shares on the open market or in private transactions or otherwise, on such terms and at such times as the Reporting Persons may deem advisable," the filing said, suggesting that Starboard isn’t just looking at this as an opportunity to make money. 

The WSJ added that Starboard is planning to “push” the company to improve its performance as well.

GoDaddy’s fourth quarter was better than many analysts predicted. It posted earnings of 58 cents per share, last month, as well as a 14.2% increase in group revenues, topping at $960 million.

For the current fiscal year, GoDaddy says its overall revenue will be around $3.7 billion.

TOPICS

Sead is a seasoned freelance journalist based in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. He writes about IT (cloud, IoT, 5G, VPN) and cybersecurity (ransomware, data breaches, laws and regulations). In his career, spanning more than a decade, he’s written for numerous media outlets, including Al Jazeera Balkans. He’s also held several modules on content writing for Represent Communications.

Read more
GoDaddy logo
GoDaddy told to up security practices by FTC
Oracle
Bluehost owner is moving to Oracle Cloud, so could thousands of websites be about to migrate?
Crowdstrike logo
CrowdStrike claws back market value after triggering largest IT outage in history
GoDaddy
What is GoDaddy Airo? Everything we know about AI web hosting
Representational image depecting cybersecurity protection
Top venture capital firm Insight Partners confirms it was hit by cyberattack
Hostinger
New Year Sale: Get up to 80% off Hostinger Website Builder + FREE domain + FREE extra months!
Latest in Website Building
Wix automation
The world's leading website builder aims to save businesses time with new tool
Squarespace
Build a website for less with 10% off Squarespace subscriptions
Squarespace
Fresh season, fresh start— launch your dream website with Squarespace with this offer
Wix Printful
Wix teams up with Printful for in-house print-on-demand tools
Squarespace
Don't miss out on this great Squarespace deal
Hostinger Website Builder vs WordPress.com: Which is better?
Hostinger Website Builder vs WordPress.com: Battle of the WordPress website builders
Latest in News
Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin Rennovations
Disney’s giving a classic Buzz Lightyear ride a tech overhaul – here's everything you need to know
Hisense U8 series TV on wall in living room
Hisense announces 2025 mini-LED TV lineup, with screen sizes up to 100 inches – and a surprising smart TV switch
Nintendo Music teaser art
Nintendo Music expands its library with songs from Kirby and the Forgotten Land and Tetris
Opera AI Tabs
Opera's new AI feature brings order to your browser tab chaos
An image of Pro-Ject's Flatten it closed and opened
Pro-Ject’s new vinyl flattener will fix any warped LPs you inadvertently buy on Record Store Day
The iPhone 16 Pro on a grey background
iPhone 17 Pro tipped to get 8K video recording – but I want these 3 video features instead