With IPO Priced Above Range, Web Host GoDaddy Raises $460 Million

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This article originally appeared at The WHIR

In its New York Stock Exchange debut Wednesday, GoDaddy’s shares rose 31 percent to $26.15 at 10 am ET after the company sold 23 million shares for $20 each. The IPO has raised $460 million, which is significantly more than GoDaddy’s original aim to raise around $100 million, stated in the company’s S-1 filing in June 2014.

On Tuesday, GoDaddy was expected to set an Initial Public Offering price of $20 per share, slightly higher than the the $17 and $19 range stated in an SEC filing last month. This share price values the company at up to $5.48 billion, including debt, according to Reuters.

This year has seen only the launch of two other tech stocks, which is considered low because there were 14 tech IPOs in the same period last year. Cloud storage provider Box was one of the tech IPOs this year with shares opening at $14 and rising as much as 65 percent on the first day of trading and are now trading at around $19.50.

Online marketplace Etsy is also rumored to be going public soon with an expected IPO priced at $14-$16 per share for a $1.78 billion valuation.

GoDaddy, which has been in business since 1997 and currently manages around a fifth of all domains, is much more well-established than new technology upstarts.

In 2011, it was acquired by a private equity consortium led by KKR & Co LP and Silver Lake Partners for $2.25 billion. KKR and Silver Lake each own 27.9 percent stakes, Technology Crossover Ventures (TCV) owns 12.6 percent, and company founder Bob Parsons owns approximately 28 percent. Following the IPO, the stakes KKR, Silver Lake, and Parsons will have in the company will drop to 23.9 percent, and TCV will hold 10.7 percent.

In 2014, GoDaddy reported $1.39 billion in revenue, a 23 increase from 2013, as well as adding 1.1 million customers bringing its total clients to 12.7 million which bring in $114 per customer on average. Yet it also reported ending the year with $143.3 million in net losses, albeit less than the $200 million it lost the previous year.

GoDaddy will be trading under the symbol “GDDY.”

This piece ran first at http://www.thewhir.com/web-hosting-news/ipo-priced-range-web-host-godaddy-raises-460-million