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GoDaddy in talks to buy massive registrar Host Europe – report

Kevin Murphy, November 25, 2016, 14:17:27 (UTC), Domain Registrars

GoDaddy is reportedly talking to Host Europe Group, one of Europe’s largest registrars, about an acquisition.
Reuters today reported that the deal, should it go ahead, could be worth as much as $1.8 billion.
GoDaddy has been favored over rival bids from United Internet (owner of United-Domains) and buyout firm Centerbridge, Reuters said.
HEG is the parent company for several registrar brands. Notably, it owns 123-reg and DomainMonster, two of the UK’s largest registrars.
123-reg had over 900,000 gTLD domains on its books at the last count. HEG overall says it manages over seven million domains.
The company was acquired by private equity group Cinven for £438 million ($545 million) in 2013.
It has 1.7 million customers and 1,300 employees spread across eight countries. It primarily operates in the UK and Germany.
HEG had 2015 revenue of €269.8 million ($286.3 million) and made a loss of €55.6 million ($59 million).
For GoDaddy, the acquisition is a chance to shift its revenue mix away from domains and more towards the more profitable hosting market, according to Reuters.



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Comments (3)

  1. Andrew says:

    It’s the number of .uk names you need to look at here…
    Nominet 2016 Voting rights:
    123-Reg Limited 2,801,092
    1 & 1 Internet SE 1,972,362
    GoDaddy.com, LLP. 766,521
    (Take about 1305 off that to get the number of dum)
    Godaddy + HEG merged would have about 3.6 million .uk domains. This might even be closer to 4 million since the voting rights were last calculated on 1st March (40% of the .uk registry).
    United Internet + HEG merged they would have closer to 5 million or (50% of the .uk registry)
    Still…
    Any new group of members would be capped in any AGM vote at 3%

  2. Dot Advice says:

    So whoever gets the Go Daddy + 1&1 votes in 2017 is almost guaranteed to get in this time ! Forgot the other 2400 odd members.
    http://domainincite.com/20343-greimann-wins-nominet-board-seat

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