In its sixth acquisition in just over a year, GoDaddy has purchased Media Temple for an undisclosed amount.
Media Temple is a smaller, LA based hosting company with a much stronger reputation among professional developers and designers. As GoDaddy’s Chief Executive Blake Irving explained in a phone interview with VentureBeat, “We have not done a great job with that customer segment.”
And he’s right. Developers and designers generally don’t use GoDaddy. Known more as the generic giant of web hosting—and with a questionable marketing history to boot—it will be interesting to see how Irving, and GoDaddy, plan to further attempt to attract a more knowledgeable and savvy crowd.
Russ Reeder, Media Temple’s president, admits that he plans to take full advantage of GoDaddy’s global presence. With a platform this vast, who can blame him? Reeder told Christina Farr of VentureBeat, “Our goal is to expand our recognition with developers internationally.”
Media Temple has been around since the late 90s and has raised just over $15 million in venture financing. As part of GoDaddy’s ongoing strategy to win over the small to medium sized business sector, Irving of GoDaddy explained of the Media Temple acquisition:
We want to win the hearts and minds of developers, so it made sense to build this relationship out.
He also stressed in his interview with VentureBeat:
GoDaddy has set aside a ‘huge sum of money’ for its mission to build the world leading platform for small businesses.
Well one thing GoDaddy has, in abundance, is money. We’ll just have to wait and see how this capital advantage might be utilized to change its reputation, expand its customer base, and/or navigate its future.
What do you think of the acquisition? Do you think more developers and designers might consider GoDaddy in the future?
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