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GoDaddy Files For $100 Million IPO
mpicpp (3454017) writes with news that GoDaddy has filed to make an initial public offering "This is the second time GoDaddy has tried to go public. It went this route back in 2006, but then backed out when it didn't get the pricing it wanted."
The SEC Filing indicates that they are not in the greatest financial condition. Quoting CNN: "GoDaddy hasn't made a profit since 2009. The company lost $279 million in 2012. It bled another $200 million last year. This year doesn't look much better, with another $51 million lost in the first quarter." Founder Bob Parsons, currently executive chairman, will be stepping down but remaining on the board of directors.
An IPO that, even if successful, would cover only 6 months of their burn rate?
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
This is going to make top Go Daddy execs millionaires, and every other stockholder gets screwed after the execs flip and the stock tumbles down in the months following said IPO.
Protip: NEVER enter an IPO, no matter how awesome you think the company is. Wait and see how the stock performs over an extended period.
The SEC Filing indicates that they are not in the greatest financial condition.
Shocking. They sell an aggressively priced commodity product and spend a ton on stupid sexist advertising to people who aren't their customers. Their customer service sucks and their website (last I checked) is a hot mess. While I haven't read their prospectus I don't really see them ever being more than modestly profitable at best. They seem to be taking an Amazon business model - growing now and worrying about profits down the road. But unlike Amazon the economic barriers to competition are quite a bit lower.
How the fuck do you blow $200+ million a year being a registrar? Where does the money go? It can't possibly cost that much unless they are doing something very, very wrong. Where is the cash going?
SOPA support?
GoDaddy should stick to their core competency of strippers, pole dancing and parties(*) rather than this internet thing.
* Well thats the impression I get from their ads.
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Founder Bob Parsons, currently executive chairman, will be stepping down but remaining on the board of directors.
Well, there's your problem. Until Parsons is well and truly out of the business, I can't imagine there's going to be any serious turnaround.
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They should fire all their marketing executives and build a simple website, and try online marketing instead. They can employ tools like, you knoe, Search Engine Optimisation, Website building tools etc. etc.
Whenever I look at the ugly girls dancing in the GoDaddy ads I can see where they keep losing more and more millions.
If you keep throwing chairs, one day you'll break windows....
How the fuck do you blow $200+ million a year being a registrar?
By buying pointless Super Bowl ads and selling your product for less than it actually costs to provide. It's not hard to lose a lot of money really fast if you sell a commodity product people want for less than it actually costs to provide it. I had a teacher once point out how easy it is to generate sales. Just sell a $2 bill for $1. You'll have all the revenue you can handle but you'll be out of business faster than you can say "Chapter 7 bankruptcy".
Where does the money go?
Go dig up the prospectus and it will tell you. I can't be bothered but my guess would be some combination of advertising, infrastructure and management compensation. Possibly debt service too if they went that route.
This company has been a lowbrow bottom feeder since the beginning.
At first glance the pricing looks OK. But soon you realize you are fenced in. You find out your domain is held hostage by lack of features. Features that are ransomed off.
Buying Go-Daddy is purely a speculative exercise that is not backed by history or sane projections.
but... but... Dannica Patrick's TITS!
ok, granted, those are a pretty heavily leveraged commodity, too...
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
If it wasn't such an obvious move you could short them
Personally I'd rather have my idiots at home glued to the TV than out doing idiotic things
It costs a lot to have half naked girls dancing in your ads. And also shooting endangered species costs a lot too.
Surely once they are publicly traded, their days of being ethical and not evil will be at an end.
Gee, I wonder what could have effected their profitablity since that year.....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D...
Well.. maybe. Or Maybe not. But Definitely not sort of.
If the only place i could get 'x' was from godaddy, i would not use 'x'.
Any investor who think television advertising = a business without competition clearly is stupid,
Their rates for renewals are pretty high compared to the competition, so unless all registrars are unprofitable, I would think otherwise. 200 million sounds like executive pay run amok.
Unlikely but you can check the prospectus to find out. That sort of thing is required to be detailed in the prospectus for any IPO. I'm sure executive pay is a piece of it but it's unlikely to be the majority.
Whoa there cowboy, maybe you'll be less testy if you hoover another rail of that Colombian mood enhancer off your desk. Gotta keep your blood levels even, you know.
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I'll buy THAT for a dollar!
Personally I avoid using Godaddy unless there is one of those sales where they are selling domain registration or transfers at below cost.
I have registered a fair number of domains with them at the $1 to $5 price points you can sometimes get and when a decent coupon for transfer comes up from someone better like Namecheap I transfer them away. Godaddy looses money on the deal. I might transfer those domains back into godaddy on another below cost transfer deal but I just transfer it back out again if I find another deal or if the renewal is approaching. I have never paid them the normal cost of renewal. Every time I have done any business with them it's below the approximately $7.85 cost they are paying to the central registry.
So if you advocate a boycott of Godaddy that's fine. But if you want to hurt them even more then take advantage of their below cost coupons when you can and actually cost the company money but remember to transfer those domains away again when you can.
You sir will be quoted for that line.... "Whoa there cowboy, maybe you'll be less testy if you hoover another rail of that Colombian mood enhancer off your desk. Gotta keep your blood levels even, you know." - Philip the "Colombian Mood Doctor"
When it came out that they were supporting SOPA I pulled my domains and moved them to Namecheap. One of the best things I ever did.
As part of the process they put a lock on a couple of my domains for some reason. They claimed it was because I changed some account information, which I didn't.
When that happened I complained to the AG in the state they are incorporated in. When that hit the fan some VP called me personally to expedite the transfer. So basically you can put some leverage on them through the AG.
Although Amazon has a ridiculous P/E of 513 [google.com] at least they make some money and are not bleeding red ink line Go Daddy.
Amazon's P/E doesn't mean much because they are heavily reinvesting in the company with stuff like Kindle etc. They could be highly profitable tomorrow if they wanted but they appear to be thinking long term. If you want a better idea of the value of Amazon's stock look at their Revenue vs Market Cap multiple which is approximately 2X. Most fairly valued companies have a revenue multiple between 1X and 2X so Amazon is not really outrageously priced most likely. I doubt GoDaddy could flip a switch and be profitable tomorrow.
Regulations forbid shorting stock for the first 30 days. There are some expectations for market makers and a loophole for holders of physical stock that hedge funds have abused in the past. (I think that particular scandal has been cleared up.)
Maaaaaaaaybe they should change their corporate image from "trashy and unprofessional sexist pigs and perverts" to something that, oh I don't know, maybe business might find attractive. You know, businesses...the people that buy things from them. They're not selling Mountain Dew and tacos, they're selling professional IT services!
i thought godaddy was looking for a buyer, not planning an ipo?
It comes down to the same thing, except that the public is the buyer. It all depends on whether they are diluting the current share pool, or the current shareholders are trying to sell.
If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.