GoDaddy acquires its European rival Host Europe Group in a $1.8 billion deal

GoDaddy, an internet domain registrar and web hosting company, acquired its largest European rival Host Europe Group (HEG) in a $1.8 billion deal, including a $600 million payout for current HEG shareholders, and $1.1 billion of assumed debt. The acquisition is expected to help the firm increase its international reach, and customer base. As of 2016, GoDaddy manages more than 63 million domains and boasts of 14.5 million customers, while its rival HEG has ~7 million domains under management with a customer base of 1.7 million in Europe.

Even before the acquisition, the company had wide presence in the European space. It has ~1 million “.UK” domains in United Kingdom, which accounts for 25% of the country’s domains. During the last quarter, the company recorded $129.2 million of revenues at a y-o-y growth of 21%.

Besides the traditional revenue streams of domain registration and hosting, the company is also planning to increase sales through proprietary services such as SEO optimization, online marketing and online bookkeeping.