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GoDaddy finds sugar daddies

Domain name registrar says acquisition by private-equity firms KKR & Co., Silver Lake Partners, and Technology Crossover Ventures will help it expand overseas and look for buyout targets.

Edward Moyer Senior Editor
Edward Moyer is a senior editor at CNET and a many-year veteran of the writing and editing world. He enjoys taking sentences apart and putting them back together. He also likes making them from scratch. ¶ For nearly a quarter of a century, he's edited and written stories about various aspects of the technology world, from the US National Security Agency's controversial spying techniques to historic NASA space missions to 3D-printed works of fine art. Before that, he wrote about movies, musicians, artists and subcultures.
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Edward Moyer
 

Web hosting company and domain name registrar GoDaddy announced this week that it has been acquired by private-equity firms KKR & Co., Silver Lake Partners, and Technology Crossover Ventures.

Financial details of the deal were not disclosed, but The Wall Street Journal cited an unnamed source as saying that the agreement was worth $2.25 billion, about half of which is debt.

The deal was expected; the Journal reported last week that the agreement was in the works and nearing completion.

For now, GoDaddy CEO Bob Parsons will remain in that role, the Journal said last night, adding that he'll also be GoDaddy's largest single shareholder. KKR and the others will become GoDaddy's majority investors.

The deal will help GoDaddy, the world's largest registrar of domain names, expand overseas and look for buyout targets, Parsons told the Journal.

Related links
GoDaddy nearing deal to be acquired for $2.5 billion?

Silver Lake Partners was a major investor in Skype, which was acquired last month by Microsoft for $8.5 billion. Silver Lake is also an investor in daily deals site Groupon--as is Technology Crossover Ventures--and in social-gaming company Zynga. KKR's portfolio includes audio products manufacturer Harmon International and integrated software provider Sungard.

Correction, July 3, 7:50 p.m. PDT: The author accidentally typed million instead of billion in the second and sixth paragraphs of this story. He regrets these errors.