TEMPE, AZ — Starboard Value, an activist investor and one of GoDaddy’s largest shareholders, is calling for the Tempe-based internet domain and web-hosting company to explore a potential sale if it’s unable to improve financial performance.
In a letter to GoDaddy on Tuesday, Starboard called the company's stock “deeply undervalued” and expressed concerns about the web services provider’s performance over the past 18 months.
“We invested in GoDaddy because we believed there were significant opportunities to deliver on strong revenue growth, meaningful margin expansion and a more appropriate capital allocation strategy, which, collectively, would result in meaningful shareholder value creation,” Starboard wrote. “Unfortunately, despite each of these opportunities remaining, over the last 18 months we have been disappointed by GoDaddy’s operational, financial, and stock price performance.”
Since late 2021, GoDaddy’s management team and several directors have engaged in "regular and constructive discussions" with Starboard, said Kristy Nicholas, a spokeswoman for GoDaddy.
