Sponsors: Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., Silver Lake
Target: GoDaddy.com
Price: $2billion
Seller: Founder Bob Parsons
Buyout firms
GoDaddy.com registers Internet domain names for commercial and private users. The New York Post earlier reported news of the takeover talks. GoDaddy has hired investment bank Qatalyst Partners, the Wall Street Journal reported. Private equity firms are expected to bid.
The company declined to comment.
GoDaddy is the world’s largest domain name registrar. The company, founded by Bob Parsons in 1997, says it has more than 43 million domains under management.
The company posted revenue between $750 million and $800 million in 2009, the Journal report said. GoDaddy has made a name for itself by running racy television ads to promote its brand, some of them featuring race car driver Danica Patrick.
Private equity deal flow so far in 2011 has risen about 42 percent from a year ago, according to Thomson Reuters data.
KKR and Silver Lake declined comment. GoDaddy was not immediately available for comment.
(Megan Davies is a correspondent for Reuters in New York; additional reporting by Alexei Oreskovic and Gabriel Madway.)