GoDaddy buyout excepted for $2 - 2.5 billion

The Wall St Journal is reporting today that GoDaddy is near a buyout deal with an investment conglomerate of 3 companies (KKR & Co., Silver Lake Partners and a third unnamed investor). The deal will be for somewhere between $2 billion and $2.5 billion, and is expected to close sometime next week.

Founded in 1997, GoDaddy has become the world's largest registrar of domain names. It produces a steady stream of income from domain registrations, renewals and its other services like hosting. They started shopping the company for potential new owners last September.

The report says that the owner Bob Parsons would stay on in the event of a sale.