Abstract:
The parent company of Norton 360 anti-virus software has made an acquisition offer to website domain name service provider GoDaddy, hoping to expand its business scope beyond network security and privacy technology. According to people familiar with the matter, negotiations between Gen Digital and GoDaddy are still in the early stages, and there is no guarantee that the initial acquisition contacts will eventually lead to a transaction.
Gen Digital made its first takeover bid in recent weeks, people familiar with the matter said.
Gen Digital was formed in 2022 from the merger of NortonLifeLock and Czech cybersecurity company Avast.
The company has since become an aggregator of consumer-facing cybersecurity brands, with a number of well-known products including computer cleaning software CCleaner, online privacy tool ReputationDefender, and identity theft protection service LifeLock.
For Gen Digital, which currently has a market value of approximately US$15.7 billion, the successful acquisition of GoDaddy will be a transformational transaction.
Currently, a group of traditional software companies are competing to expand their business scale to enhance their ability to withstand the impact of artificial intelligence on existing business models.
The specific terms of the acquisition proposed by Gen Digital cannot yet be determined.
GoDaddy's current market value is approximately US$12.2 billion. If the two parties complete the merger, they will bring together many well-known brands that have continued from the first wave of the Internet to this day.
The deal will also give Gen Digital access to GoDaddy's more than 20 million small business and individual customers, who primarily use GoDaddy to register and manage Internet domain names.
GoDaddy currently manages approximately 81 million Internet domain names, accounting for approximately one-fifth of the total number of registered domain names in the world.
Both Gen Digital and GoDaddy declined to comment.
The negotiations between the two sides come as investor interest in established Internet brands is reviving.
At the beginning of this summer, Italian software aggregator Bending Spoons completed a large-scale listing, with its initial IPO valuation reaching $25.7 billion. Bending Spoons currently owns brands such as AOL and Vimeo.
Gen Digital has previously shown its intention to expand beyond its core business of cybersecurity.
Last year, the company acquired fintech lending platform MoneyLion in a deal valued at about $1 billion.
GoDaddy first emerged during the Internet bubble.
In 2011, a consortium led by private equity firms Silver Lake Capital Management and KKR took GoDaddy private; four years later, the company returned to the public market.
Last year, GoDaddy achieved revenue of nearly $5 billion.
However, its shares have fallen about 55% since hitting an all-time high early last year.
Currently, GoDaddy is also responding to investor concerns that AI website building tools could weaken its business.
To this end, the company is promoting its own Aire.ai platform. The platform uses AI agents to help users create websites and design logos, hoping to use its own AI products to resist the competitive pressure brought by emerging website building tools.
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