The firm is representing a consortium comprised of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., Silver Lake Partners and Technology Crossover Ventures in connection with the execution of a definitive agreement to provide a strategic investment and enter into a partnership with The Go Daddy Group, Inc. (“Go Daddy”). The transaction was announced July 1, 2011. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
GoDaddy.com is the world’s largest Web hosting provider and is the world's No. 1 domain name registrar according to Name Intelligence, Inc. The company serves more than 9.3 million global customers and manages more than 48 million domain names. Go Daddy has locations in Arizona, Colorado, Iowa, Washington, D.C., Singapore, Toronto and The Netherlands, and is headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona. Go Daddy offers more than 50 product lines, including comprehensive hosting solutions, website creation services and building tools, secure SSL Certificates, personalized email with spam and anti-phishing filtering, e-commerce tools, online marketing solutions and more.
The Simpson Thacher team working on this deal includes: Bill Dougherty, Jeremy Saks, S.J. Gagliardi, Iksoo Kim and Maura Whelan (M&A); James Cross and Ravi Agarwal (Credit); Steven Todrys, Sean Austin and Christian Miller (Tax); Craig Katerberg (Executive Compensation and Employee Benefits); Lori Lesser and Genevieve Dorment (Intellectual Property); Joseph Tringali, Michael Naughton and Riley Mendoza (Antitrust); Krista McManus (Real Estate); and Julie Levy (Labor). Summer Associates Adam Wollstein and Michael Goldberg provided invaluable assistance.