In a Move to Reinforce Its 'Mobile First' Strategy, Go Daddy Acquires M.dot

Who has not waited to see what exciting ads Go Daddy devised for Super Bowl TV ads? That bears the questions, “Who is not familiar with GoDaddy.com?” and “What will Danica Patrick be doing?” Go Daddy is a company that was founded in 1997 by Bob Parsons. It was originally called Jomax Technologies. It has since become one of the world's largest domain name registrar and Web hosting providers. Currently, it has over 54 million domain names under management.

M.dot, Inc. is a company that offers a free app that allows users to build a mobile website from scratch, or a mobile version of a website that already exists. M.dot was co-founded by Dominik Balogh and Pavel Serbajlo in June 2012. The two explained that M.dot’s primary use is for mobile websites, but they hope people end up using it as their main site. The coding has been optimized for smartphones, but looks clean and appealing in a Web browser. Serbajlo said, “We know people don’t like to enter a lot of information on their smartphones, so we’ve made it very simple.”

On February 12, 2013, Go Daddy acquired M.dot, Inc. This adds to Go Daddy’s already extensive product offers and gives Go Daddy's 11 million customers an easy way to create and manage compelling mobile websites right from their smartphones.

Blake Irving, Go Daddy’s CEO said, "We're pleased to welcome M.dot to our growing Go Daddy family. M.dot's global vision of a mobile future for small businesses fits beautifully with what our customers need right now. Go Daddy wants to help businesses connect with their customers wherever they are in the world, and that means providing killer mobile technology. It also means helping our customers manage their business from anywhere, anytime with the simplicity of their smartphone or tablet. With M.dot, small businesses can compete on a big-time level without spending big-time money. We're completely stoked to have M.dot on board."

"Go Daddy is exactly the kind of technology company we wanted to join because they cater to and understand the small business customer. We've always believed small business is essential for a healthy economy and Go Daddy has extensive experience as the industry's leading platform for small enterprises. Joining Go Daddy means our mobile software will now be accessible through much larger distribution channels and will help even more small businesses achieve greater success. It also gives us the benefit of integrating with Go Daddy's immense customer support foundation, which I believe is a significant competitive advantage in this segment,” said Balogh.

Serbajlo said, "Go Daddy was built from scratch and is now a multi-billion dollar company -- their industry expertise and achievements are inspiring. We're looking forward to taking mobile software for small businesses to the next level with Go Daddy. We share the same vision for mobile. We're passionate about small businesses, start-ups and entrepreneurs ... we all want to build software products that enable our customers to succeed online."

Blake Irving admits that "The company has largely been a mystery to the valley. The purchase of M.dot, whose app lets small-business owners create web sites on iPhones in minutes, erases some of the confusion — not to mention helping solidify GoDaddy's business. We'll still do edgy, outspoken ads," he says. "But we also want to make clear our value proposition.”

In addition to acquiring M.dot, Go Daddy made the announcement from the new office that they opened in Silicon Valley. At the time of this announcement, none of the terms or conditions of the deal had been disclosed.