Published: July 01, 2011
Go Daddy Enters Partnership with KKR, Silver Lake & TCV
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. - (BUSINESS WIRE) - The
Go Daddy Group, Inc., the world's largest provider of Web
hosting, domain
names and new SSL
Security Certificates, announced it has signed a definitive
agreement to receive a strategic investment and enter into a partnership
with KKR,
Silver
Lake and Technology
Crossover Ventures. Financial terms of the transaction were not
disclosed.
Founded in 1997, Go Daddy is the world's largest on-ramp for cloud-based
software and services. The company serves more than 9.3 million global
customers and manages more than 48 million domain names. Go Daddy has
locations in Arizona, Colorado, Iowa, Washington, D.C., Singapore,
Toronto and The Netherlands, and is headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Go Daddy's track record of strong organic growth has been driven by its
innovative products and differentiated customer service. The Company
offers more than 50 product lines, including comprehensive hosting
solutions, website creation services and building tools, secure SSL
Certificates, personalized email with spam and anti-phishing filtering,
e-commerce tools, online marketing solutions and more.
"I've always said we would make a move like this when the right
deal with the right partners could help us do the right thing
for our customers and our employees," said Go Daddy CEO and Founder Bob
Parsons. "This is it! We are partnering with KKR, Silver Lake and TCV
because of their technology expertise, their understanding of Web based
businesses and because their values align with ours. We believe,
together, we will take the company to the next level, especially when it
comes to accelerating international growth."
Go Daddy is widely recognized for its industry leadership:
-
Ranked on the Inc. " 500/5000" List of the nation's fastest-growing
privately-held companies for seven years, including 2009 and 2010;
-
Awarded "Innovator of the Year" by NetApp in 2011;
-
Ranked on the Deloitte "Technology Fast 500" List for six years,
including 2009 and 2010.
Greg Mondre, Managing Director, of Silver Lake said: "Go Daddy is
powerfully positioned for future growth as it continues to innovate and
add to its truly unique platform of cloud-based software and services.
At the same time, we plan to maintain and augment all of the attributes
that have made Go Daddy a clear market leader today, including world
class customer support and competitive pricing for its 9.3 million
customers."
"In Go Daddy, we are pleased to be partnering with a high-growth market
leader and an outstanding team," said Herald Chen, head of KKR's
software and Internet effort. "Building on Go Daddy's exceptional
customer service and loyal customer base, we believe there is
significant opportunity to expand the current portfolio of products and
services as well as accelerate growth internationally."
Will Griffith, General Partner at TCV, which is also joining KKR and
Silver Lake as an investor in Go Daddy, said: "For years, we have
admired what Bob and the team have built with Go Daddy. We are excited
to invest in the business and contribute to its continued success."
The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions. Qatalyst
Partners served as the exclusive advisor to Go Daddy in connection with
the transaction. Barclays Capital, Deutsche Bank Securities, Inc. and
RBC Capital Markets acted as financial advisors and, along with KKR
Capital Markets, they or their affiliates provided financing commitments
for the transaction.
About The Go Daddy Group, Inc.
Go Daddy is a leading provider of services that enable individuals and
businesses to establish, maintain and evolve an online presence. Go
Daddy provides a variety of domain name registration plans and website
design and hosting packages, as well as a broad array of on-demand
services. These include products such as SSL Certificates, Domains by
Proxy private registration, ecommerce website hosting, blog templates
and blog software, podcast packages and online photo hosting. The Go
Daddy Group has more than 48 million domain names under management. Go
Daddy registers, renews or transfers more than one domain name every
second of every day. GoDaddy.com is the world's largest Web hosting
provider and is the world's No. 1 domain name registrar according to
Name Intelligence, Inc. In 2010, The Go Daddy Group registered more than
one-third of all new domain names created in the top six generic
top-level domains, or gTLDs, including .com, .net, .org, .info, .biz,
and .mobi. For more information, visit www.GoDaddy.com.
About KKR
Founded in 1976 and led by Henry Kravis and George Roberts, KKR is a
leading global investment firm with $61.0 billion in assets under
management as of March 31, 2011. With 14 offices around the world KKR
manages assets through a variety of investment funds and accounts
covering multiple asset classes. KKR seeks to create value by bringing
operational expertise to its portfolio companies and through active
oversight and monitoring of its investments. The KKR Technology Team has
invested approximately $9 billion of capital in high quality technology
companies globally. Current and previous technology investments include
Amphenol, Aricent, Avago, Kodak, MMI, Northgate, NXP, RELTEC, SunGard,
TASC, Tenovis, Unisteel, Visma, Wincor Nixdorf, and Yageo. KKR is
publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: KKR). For
additional information and a complete list of KKR's private equity
investments, please visit KKR's website at www.kkr.com.
About Silver Lake
Silver Lake is the global leader in private investments in technology
and technology-enabled industries. Silver Lake invests with the
strategic and operational insights of an experienced industry
participant. The firm has over 90 investment professionals located in
New York, Menlo Park, San Francisco, London, Hong Kong and Tokyo and
manages over $14 billion across large cap and middle market private
investment strategies as well as a credit investment strategy. The large
cap Silver Lake Partners fund has made numerous investments in
technology industry leaders such as Allyes, Ameritrade, Avago, Avaya,
Business Objects, Flextronics, Gartner, Gerson Lehrman Group, Groupon,
Instinet, Intelsat, Interactive Data Corporation, IPC Systems, MCI,
Mercury Payment Systems, MultiPlan, the NASDAQ OMX Group, NetScout, NXP,
Sabre, Seagate Technology, Serena Software, Skype, Spreadtrum, SunGard
Data Systems, UGS, Vantage Data Centers, and Zynga. For more
information, please visit www.silverlake.com.
About TCV
Technology Crossover Ventures (TCV), founded in 1995, is a leading
provider of growth capital to technology companies, providing funds to
later-stage private and public companies. With $7.7 billion in capital
under management, TCV has made growth equity, PIPE and recapitalization
investments in over 170 companies leading to 47 initial public offerings
and more than 30 strategic sales or mergers. Representative investments
include Altiris, C|NET, eHarmony, Expedia, Facebook, Fandango, Groupon,
HomeAway, Liquidnet, Netflix, Orbitz, RealNetworks, Redback Networks,
RiskMetrics Group, Solect Technology, TechTarget, TradingScreen,
Travelport, Webroot and Zillow. TCV has 12 partners and is headquartered
in Palo Alto, California with offices in New York, NY. For more
information about TCV, visit www.tcv.com.

The Go Daddy Group, Inc.
Elizabeth L. Driscoll,
480-505-8878
Elizabeth@GoDaddy.com
or
KKR
Kristi
Huller, 212-230-9722
Kristi.Huller@kkr.com
or
For
Silver Lake
Edelman
Jenny Farrelly, 212-819-4807
Jenny.Farrelly@edelman.com
or
For
TCV
Kinetic PR
Shifali Erasmus-Bhagat, 650-315-7526
shifali@kineticprllc.com
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