GoDaddy Surges In NYSE Debut

(RTTNews) - GoDaddy Inc (GDDY) shares surged in its debut on the New York Stock Exchange following a successful initial public offering.

GoDaddy, a technology provider dedicated to small businesses, priced its IPO of 23 million Class A shares at $20.00 each, above its estimated range of $17 to $19 per share.

All of the shares in the IPO were offered by GoDaddy, and about 2.5 million shares were purchased by certain entities affiliated with the principal beneficial holders of the stock.

GoDaddy has granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 3 million shares to cover over-allotments, if any.

An Internet domain registrar and website hosting company, GoDaddy was founded in 1997 as Jomax Technologies by Bob Parsons. Earlier in 2006, the company filed to go public but abandoned the effort, citing unfavorable market conditions.

The Scottsdale, Arizona-based company's NYSE debut comes more than three years after it was bought by private equity firms KKR & Co (KKR) and Silver Lake Management for $2.25 billion in December 2011.

GoDaddy derives more than a quarter of its revenues from customers in international markets, notably Canada, India and the United Kingdom. The company had reported a net loss of $143.31 million and revenue of $1.39 billion for 2014, compared with a loss of $199.88 million and revenue of $1.13 billion in the prior year.

GoDaddy is now trading at $26.19, up $6.19 or 30.95%, after trading as low as $25.49 and as high as $26.84. At the current stock price, GoDaddy has a market capitalization of about $4 billion.