Party time at Go Daddy: Employment in Hiawatha will double to 1,000

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Go Daddy's first big holiday party in Cedar Rapids brought about 850 to the Cedar Rapids Marriott on Thursday, Dec. 1. (Dave DeWitte/SourceMedia Group News)

Go Daddy founder Bob Parsons says employment at the company's Hiawatha office will  hit 1,000, and the company will open another office in Asia.

At a rollicking holiday party in Cedar Rapids, Parsons said a private equity deal to expand the company today cleared its final big regulatory hurdle - approval by the People's Republic of China - somewhat behind schedule.

"The deal should close before the holidays and we should be off on our way to becoming a multi-billion-dollar company," Parsons told 850 guests, including employees and spouses, at the Cedar Rapids Marriott, Thursday night.

Go Daddy is the world's largest registrar of Internet domain names and offers about 50 total products, targeting mainly the web needs of small business.

In an interview, Parsons said the deal with New York-based KKR, California-based Silver Lake, and Technology Crossover Ventures of Palo Alto, Calif., will greatly extend the company's growth capabilities.

"I brought it to $1 billion, but there's so much more we could be doing that needs  the knowledge of overseas markets," Parsons said. The new equity partners in the company bring knowledge of international markets, Parsons said, and will enable Go Daddy to make acquisitions and technology deals it needs to get into new markets. and products.

"We're very fortunate to have them involved," Parsons said. He credited them with speeding up the necessary approvals for China, a key growth market for Go Daddy.

Parsons will keep a majority ownership position after the merger, but will no longer wear the CEO title. He will serve as executive chairman.

Parsons got his start by founding Parson sTechnology in Cedar Rapids and had his first huge payday when he sold the tax preparation software company to Intuit Inc. for $64 million. He founded Go Daddy in 1997, in Arizona. The company is expected to have 2011 sales of $1.1 billion. It employs about 3,340, including 472 in Hiawatha, where it moved local operations and expanded to handle customer care  in 2010.

Doubling the Hiawatha office to 1,000 employees "is more than a literal possibility," Parsons said in an interview. "It's something that will definitely happen."

The company will continue to grow quickly because the Internet is still in its early stages, Parsons said.

"One third of the Internet comes through us, and the Internet is in such an early stage of being adopted," Parsons said. "Right now, there are just over 200 million domain names, the world's population is 7 billion."

Parsons said much of the growth will occur in the developing nations, including China and India, where wealth is growing. The company plans to open a customer call center in Asia to handle the international business.

Parsons said the West used to export knock-off watches to China.

"Now all the real watches go to China and the knock-off watches come here," he said.

The shift in location of the company's Christmas party from Chase Field in Phoenix to separated parties in Phoenix, Denver and Cedar Rapids was necessary because of the company's growth, Parsons said. While the company once flew everyone who wanted to go to Phoenix for the holiday megabash, the Hiawatha operation is now too critical to have so many people absent.

The Mardi Gras-themed party included fortune tellers, stilt walkers, jugglers, and a virtual playground of projection technologies to let party guests see what was going on, and read tweets sent from the party. Just setting up the props took several days, company spokeswoman Kari Amarosso said. Two of the Go Daddy Girls who've appeared on the company's racy television commercials made the trip.

Parsons said he believes in the power of a good party.

"I like to have parties where people come up to me and say, "I never dreamed I'd be at something like this," Parsons said.

That seemed to be the case for many party attendees at the Marriott.

Seven-year employee Casey O'Connor was serving as designated driver for a group of seven, and attending his seventh Go Daddy party. The parties have been good to O'Connor, who won $5,000 in an employee drawing last year, $10,000 two years before that, and $1,000 at one previous party.

"It's the same Go-Daddy vibe," O'Connor said of Thursday's party. "It's family, it's warm, and it's personal. Bob really knows how to give back to his people and he knows how to show his appreciation."