Go Daddy is an Internet domain registrar and Web hosting company that also sells e-business related software and services. In 2010, it reached more than 45 million domain names under management.
Go Daddy is currently the largest ICANN-accredited registrar in the world, and is four times the size of its closest competitor.
Go Daddy started advertising in the Super Bowl in 2005. Since then, the company expanded its marketing to include sports sponsorships.
Go Daddy filed for an IPO in 2006, but later canceled it, due to "market uncertainties". In 2011, Go Daddy confirmed that KKR, Silver Lake Partners and Technology Crossover Ventures had closed a private equity deal.
Go Daddy was founded in 1997 as Jomax Technologies by Bob Parsons, a former US Marine. He had previously sold his financial software services company, Parsons Technology, Inc. to Intuitin the mid-nineties for millions of dollars and took a very early retirement. The company Jomax changed its name to Go Daddy in 1999 when a group of employees were brainstorming on a more memorable name than Jomax Technologies. Someone said, "How about Big Daddy?" A quick check revealed that the Internet domain of that name was taken. Then Parsons said, "How about Go Daddy?" The name was available, so he bought it. Executive Chairman and Founder Bob Parsons states the company stuck with the name because it made people smile and remember it.
Go Daddy has grown to become the largest ICANN-accredited registrar on the Internet. In 2001, soon after Network Solutions was no longer the only place to register a domain, Go Daddy was approximately the same size as competitors Dotster and eNom.In April 2005, it surpassed Network Solutions in market share in terms of total domain names registered.
In 2002, Go Daddy sued VeriSign for domain slamming and again in 2003 over its Site Finder service. This latter suit caused controversy over VeriSign's role as the sole maintainer of the .com and the .net top-level domains. VeriSign shut down Site Finder after receiving a letter from ICANN ordering it to comply with a request to disable the service.[13] In 2006, Go Daddy was sued by Web.com for patent infringement.
In 2007 and 2008, the company lobbied in favor of legislation that would crack down on unscrupulous online pharmacies and child predators.
In March 2010, Go Daddy stopped registering .cn domains (China) due to the high amount of personal information that is required to register in that country. Some called it a public relations campaign, since it closely followed Google's revolt in China
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