Partnership leads to buyout by GoDaddy

Following integrating Locu into web site building product, GoDaddy buys the whole firm.

I took yesterday afternoon off to spend with my daughter ahead of school starts again on Wednesday. As we hung out I scanned my tweet stream and saw something regarding GoDaddy and Locu.

No biggie, I thought. I’ve by now written regarding their partnership.

It wasn’t until last evening that I saw that it wasn’t regarding the partnership — GoDaddy disclosed it purchased Locu.

Locu helps businesses gets exposure on sites such as Yelp, YP.com, FourSquare, and Facebook. It fits with GoDaddy’s target modest business market.

There are two takeaways from this buyout.

First, consider partnerships with GoDaddy as potentially leading to an buyout.

Second, GoDaddy’s name ought to be thrown in the hat more as a possible acquirer of firms that target the SMB market. Its cash war chest isn’t as big as Google’s and some other firms, but it can easily tap funds when the right opportunity presents itself. And although the firm made its first business buyout just one year ago, I expect it to ramp up efforts under fresh CEO Blake Irving.