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They are losing money... and lots of it. Wow. GoDaddy has been around a long time, one would think they would be profitable (at least barely) by now. And they

They are losing money... and lots of it. Wow. GoDaddy has been around a long time, one would think they would be profitable (at least barely) by now. And they are going public with this?

onewaystreet 12y ago
Being a domain registrar is a terrible business. This is why GoDaddy has all those upsells.
- larrys 12y ago
  Nope. They were profitable prior to the buyout. Besides they don't make money on the domain registration they make it on selling other things (that you don't need in many cases) the domains are just an acquisition tool on that. A loss leader. They also have a domain buy service. A domain sale I just handled which came by that service netted them a $6000 fee for essentially contacting the other party (who I worked for) by email. (Don't use them would be my very strong suggestion.)
  - onewaystreet 12y ago
    >Besides they don't make money on the domain registration they make it on selling other things (that you don't need in many cases) the domains are just an acquisition tool on that. A loss leader. Those are the upsells I'm talking about.
beambot 12y ago
How did they get into a situation where they're losing >$200M per year -- and with only $100M cash in bank and $1B revenue? Even more perplexing... they recently took on $1B+ in debt, of which they immediately paid out 30% as a dividend to investors?! I'm not an expert or anything... but their "growth" story stinks; it looks like they're just trying to milk a dying cow. That, or I'm just way off base...
- gerbal 12y ago
  This smacks of a firm being raided by private equity funds. Leverage, debt use it to do a stock divident to the owners (Private Equity firms), launch an IPO, use the IPO funds to finance more debt, keep the company above water long enough to walk away. Also the current CEO is a former Yahoo! exec, not exactly confidence inspiring.

They are losing money... and lots of it. Wow. GoDaddy has been around a long time, one would think they would be profitable (at least barely) by now. And they are going public with this?

onewaystreet 12y ago

Being a domain registrar is a terrible business. This is why GoDaddy has all those upsells.

larrys 12y ago
Nope. They were profitable prior to the buyout. Besides they don't make money on the domain registration they make it on selling other things (that you don't need in many cases) the domains are just an acquisition tool on that. A loss leader. They also have a domain buy service. A domain sale I just handled which came by that service netted them a $6000 fee for essentially contacting the other party (who I worked for) by email. (Don't use them would be my very strong suggestion.)
- onewaystreet 12y ago
  >Besides they don't make money on the domain registration they make it on selling other things (that you don't need in many cases) the domains are just an acquisition tool on that. A loss leader. Those are the upsells I'm talking about.

beambot 12y ago

How did they get into a situation where they're losing >$200M per year -- and with only $100M cash in bank and $1B revenue? Even more perplexing... they recently took on $1B+ in debt, of which they immediately paid out 30% as a dividend to investors?! I'm not an expert or anything... but their "growth" story stinks; it looks like they're just trying to milk a dying cow. That, or I'm just way off base...

gerbal 12y ago
This smacks of a firm being raided by private equity funds. Leverage, debt use it to do a stock divident to the owners (Private Equity firms), launch an IPO, use the IPO funds to finance more debt, keep the company above water long enough to walk away. Also the current CEO is a former Yahoo! exec, not exactly confidence inspiring.