GoDaddy buys domain marketplace Afternic

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GoDaddy buys domain marketplace Afternic

September 19, 2013 01:00 PM ETIDG News Service - Domain name and Web-hosting provider GoDaddy acquired domain marketplace Afternic from NameMedia in a move to make it easier for small business owners to buy domain names.

The acquisition is GoDaddy's fourth in the last 14 months. In addition, GoDaddy is also acquiring domain parking service SmartName and business name generator NameFind from NameMedia, it said Thursday. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Afternic, based in Waltham, Mass., provides a marketplace for domain owners to sell their domains. It lists more than 5 million domain names and more than 75 million domain searches are made on the site each month, according to Afternic.

GoDaddy's acquisitions are part of a broader strategy to better service small businesses, said Elizabeth Driscoll, vice president of public relations at GoDaddy. The majority of the company's 12 million customers are small businesses, she said, adding that the company mainly targets businesses with about four or five employees.

In the past, GoDaddy used to build all services itself, she said. But when Blake Irving, a former Microsoft executive and chief product officer of Yahoo, became GoDaddy's CEO in January the road was cleared for more acquisitions, she said.

In the last 14 months, GoDaddy also acquired Locu, a company that helps local merchants get found online; M.dot, a service that offers mobile website creation based on preloaded templates, and Outright, a cloud-based financial management application company.

Loek is Amsterdam Correspondent and covers online privacy, intellectual property, open-source and online payment issues for the IDG News Service. Follow him on Twitter at @loekessers or email tips and comments to loek_essers@idg.com

Reprinted with permission from IDG.net. Story copyright 2012 International Data Group. All rights reserved.

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GoDaddy to acquire Locu to boost offerings to small businesses

GoDaddy has agreed to acquire Locu, a startup in San Francisco that helps local merchants get discovered online by their customers.

The financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The acquisition is in line with the strategy of GoDaddy, a Web hosting provider and domain name registrar, to broaden its offerings to small businesses.

The acquisition advances GoDaddy's strategy to deliver digital identities that help small businesses get more customers, the company said in a statement Monday.

Started in 2011, Locu is said to be used by more than 30,000 businesses, including restaurants, spas, salons, accountants, photographers and home-remodeling companies, to promote their services across Locu's partner network which includes ties with Yelp, YP.com, Foursquare, TripAdvisor and Facebook.

Locu will continue to operate out of its San Francisco and Cambridge, Massachusetts offices, and all its employees will join GoDaddy. The two companies have been working closely together since May when GoDaddy integrated Locu into its Website Builder service for small businesses.

Current Locu customers will not be impacted by the acquisition, Locu said in a post on its site.

GoDaddy in Scottsdale, Arizona, acquired M.dot, the developer of a mobile app for website creation and management by small businesses, in February. The company said in December it planned to take advantage of its scale, technology and brand to expand through partnerships and acquisitions aimed at helping small businesses succeed online.

John Ribeiro covers outsourcing and general technology breaking news from India for The IDG News Service. Follow John on Twitter at @Johnribeiro. John's e-mail address is john_ribeiro@idg.com

John Ribeiro covers outsourcing and general technology breaking news from India for The IDG News Service.
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