GoDaddy Inc.

What does GoDaddy own?
GoDaddy owns its registrar and web services platform, GoDaddy Registry (which operates .us, .biz, .nyc and other TLDs), GoDaddy Auctions, the Airo AI product suite, and the Host Europe business including 123 Reg.

Is GoDaddy publicly traded?
Yes. GoDaddy trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker GDDY. It went public in April 2015 after a period under private equity ownership by KKR, Silver Lake, and TCV.

Who founded GoDaddy?
Bob Parsons founded the company in 1997 in Phoenix, Arizona as Jomax Technologies, renamed GoDaddy.com in 1999. Parsons, a Vietnam veteran and serial entrepreneur, funded it from the sale of his earlier company to Intuit.

Where is GoDaddy headquartered?
GoDaddy is headquartered at 100 S. Mill Avenue in Tempe, Arizona. It moved its corporate offices from Scottsdale in the early 2020s.

How many brands does GoDaddy own?
GoDaddy operates primarily under one master brand. Its distinct business properties are GoDaddy Registry, GoDaddy Auctions, Airo, and Host Europe with its regional brands.

Who owns GoDaddy?
GoDaddy is owned by its public shareholders, with large index positions held by Vanguard, BlackRock, and other institutions. Founder Bob Parsons sold most of his stake and no longer has an operational role.

Bob Parsons founded the company in 1997 in Phoenix, Arizona as Jomax Technologies, funded with money from the 1994 sale of his earlier company, Parsons Technology, to Intuit for $64 million. Jomax began as a software development firm before pivoting to domain registration after ICANN opened the registrar market to competition in 1999. The company changed its name to GoDaddy.com in 1999, selecting a name Parsons later said was chosen partly for being memorable.

GoDaddy undercut incumbent Network Solutions on price and grew aggressively through direct marketing. It became the largest ICANN-accredited registrar by 2005, a position it has never lost. Its television advertising, including a long run of provocative Super Bowl commercials featuring race car driver Danica Patrick, made it one of the most recognized internet brands of the 2000s.

Parsons sold a majority stake to a private equity consortium of KKR, Silver Lake, and Technology Crossover Ventures in 2011 for a reported $2.25 billion. Under PE ownership the company professionalized operations and expanded internationally. It filed for an IPO in 2014 and listed on the New York Stock Exchange in April 2015 under the ticker GDDY.

Post-IPO, the company consolidated its position in small business web services. It acquired Host Europe Group in 2017 for about $1.8 billion, adding a major European hosting business, and bought the domain portfolios and registrar business of Uniregistry in 2020. Blake Irving served as CEO from 2013 to 2017, followed by Scott Wagner until 2019, when Aman Bhutani took the role.

The business transformed under Bhutani from a discount registrar into a higher-margin web services platform. It launched GoDaddy Airo, an AI product suite, in 2023, and expanded into commerce tools and aftermarket domains. Fiscal 2025 produced record revenue of $4.95 billion, total bookings of $5.4 billion, and net income of $875 million, although customer count dipped slightly to 20.4 million as the company prioritized higher-value accounts.

GoDaddy has faced recurring scrutiny over its content and domain policies. It drew criticism for hosting and then dropping controversial websites, most visibly the neo-Nazi site Daily Stormer in 2017, which raised questions about registrars' role in content moderation. The company has since developed clearer abuse policies.

Its advertising history also generated controversy. The company's sexually suggestive Super Bowl campaigns of the 2000s and early 2010s drew complaints and were later abandoned as part of a brand repositioning under Irving. A 2020 security incident exposed customer data, and the FTC in 2025 required GoDaddy to implement a comprehensive information security program following allegations of lax security practices between 2019 and 2022. The company agreed to the settlement without admitting wrongdoing.