GoDaddy Continues To Acquire

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The global internet domain name provider GoDaddy (NYSE: GDDY) recently reported its first quarter results that surpassed market expectations. The company’s results sent the stock climbing 6% in the after-hours session.

GoDaddy’s Financials

GoDaddy’s Q1 revenues grew 12% to $792 million, ahead of the market’s forecast of $790.2 million. Total bookings improved 9% over the year to $951.1 million. Adjusted EPS of $0.24 was also ahead of the analyst estimates of $0.17.

By segment, revenues from the Domain segment grew 11% to $355.9. Hosting and Presence revenues improved 11% to $297.2 million due to higher subscriptions to Websites and Marketing and WordPress offerings. Business Applications revenues grew 14% to $138.9 million.

For the current quarter, GoDaddy forecast revenues of $790 million, compared with the market’s estimates of $784.9 million. It did not provide a forecast for the end of the year.

GoDaddy’s Focus Areas

As part of the recent focus areas, GoDaddy started experimenting with an offering of a freemium model for websites plus marketing. The services are now available to all customers in the US and include product integration with GoFundMe, include a gift card functionality, and provide expanded capabilities with PayPal.

It also launched a basic messaging capability to enable customers to connect with their customers. For its platform, GoDaddy introduced a new offer for designers and developers that integrated manage WordPress and WooCommerce at a limited time price point of $1 for three months. These two offerings help developers build online selling capabilities at a faster pace.

Additionally, the company has released active offers for three-month free trial of its digital marketing suite. Since the release of the offer, it saw the install of app grow 24% month-over-month in March.

The company also continues to acquire. Earlier last month, it announced the acquisition of the registry business from Neustar. The Neustar Registry business offers a backend registry technology platform and domain security systems so that users can seamlessly connect and transact online with speed, security, and reliability. It oversees domains such as .biz, .co, .in, .nyc, and .us. A managed registry service helps a brand navigate the creation of a brand domain name and includes legal and regulatory obligations to The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the organization that administers domain names and IP addresses.

The acquired entity will be known as GoDaddy Registry. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Prior to the acquisition, Neustar was privately held by Golden Gate Capital. It was publicly traded till the end of 2016 when it decided to go private after it lost a $500-million-a-year contract to manage phone number portability for the US government.

GoDaddy’s stock is trading at $75.07 with a market capitalization of $12.5 billion. It touched a 52-week high of $78.99 in February this year. GoDaddy had fallen to a 52-week low of $40.25 in March this year.

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Photo credit: Scott Beale/Flickr.com