The Past Has Gone, Why A GoDaddy IPO Is Like ICANN, Another Relic

Sure ICANN is a monopoly--but of what? Generic Top-Level Domain-making? ICANN is getting its own IPO of sorts--only it's called an IST--the IANA Stewardship Transition.  Uncle Sam wants to unload ICANN so ICANN's multistakeholders, like GoDaddy's new stockholders, will be left holding the bag. ICANN, like GoDaddy, has a business model built on the past, that is increasingly no longer relevant. The GoDaddy hedge fund owners just want to get some return on their investment before it's all gone and too late--

There is one great thing about GoDaddy: Their brand equity and recognition in the market is arguably one of the highest in the technology industry. But the incredibly complex legal structure is orchestrated to benefit the current shareholders and not the new buyers. (source Seeking Alpha infra)

The GoDaddy IPO and ICANN and its new gTLDs--all built on the greater fool theory--

Why We PASS On GoDaddy IPO - GoDaddy (Pending:GDDY) | Seeking Alpha: "...The web hosting market is a low margin business, GoDaddy is not the only company that has posted operating losses - Web.com and Endurance International Group have posted years of losses. GoDaddy still thinks that their outdated strategy of flashy ads to generate domain registrations will take them out of the red. For example, their localized and targeted domain naming strategy of adding [new gTLDs] ".guru" or ".nyc" (among others) is targeting the businesses and individuals who are having difficulty finding new domain names or cannot afford the premium prices for the 270 million registered .com's, .org's, and .biz domains. What GoDaddy does not realize is that business is transforming into mobile and social media, where websites are an ancillary tool and not a core necessity. In today's market, for the bulk of GoDaddy's market (small local businesses), a well-built Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) flash page will drive more sales and attention than any website. Additionally, the competition is ramping up their efforts to take away market share...."(emphasis added, read more at link above)

What would YOU pay for a low-margin commoditized business that hasn't made a profit in years? LOL! I thought so.

UPDATE: 2 additional articles of interest--GoDaddy: The pig in the IPO parade | PandoDaily and Ten red flags on the GoDaddy IPO | PandoDaily

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