GoDaddy.com For Sale, May Fetch $1 Billion

GoDaddy.com, the popular website registrar famous for its raunchy Super Bowl ads that feature scantily clad women, is for sale, according to The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the news late Friday.

The sale of Go Daddy, which currently registers 43 million Web domains, could fetch $1 billion, the paper reported, citing "people familiar with the matter."

A Go Daddy spokesperson declined to comment, and would not immediately confirm or deny the report.

The Journal said that Qatalyst Partners, which is run by Frank Quattrone, has been hired to shop Go Daddy. Quattrone, of course, is the former star technology investment banker who was charged with obstruction of justice in a federal probe of the IPO practices of banking giant CSFB, only to be largely exonerated later. He has since experienced a career renaissance of sorts with Qatalyst.

Outspoken Go Daddy owner Bob Parsons has been a colorful presence in the corporate world over the last decade, hiring race car driver Danica Patrick, and airing provocative Super Bowl ads. It's unclear why Parsons has chosen to sell now, other than the obvious: the potential for a very big financial windfall.

The paper says Go Daddy had sales of between $750 million and $800 million in 2009, citing people familiar with the matter.