GoDaddy Inc., the world's largest technology provider dedicated to small businesses, has entered into an agreement to purchase FreedomVoice for $42 million in cash plus up to $5 million in potential future milestones payments. The addition of FreedomVoice's team and its cloud-based communications products furthers GoDaddy's commitment to helping small businesses succeed.
There are over 210 million small businesses globally and the vast majority rely on mobile or desktop phones to communicate with their customers. With this acquisition, GoDaddy now provides another essential service for small businesses and organizations to create and maintain their digital identity – adding voice services to naming, presence and productivity.
FreedomVoice offers a product suite that delivers intuitive and affordable communications specifically for small businesses. Products include a custom cloud number (local, toll-free, vanity) that automatically routes business-related calls to a user's mobile phone, and a cloud-based phone system that delivers enterprise-quality voice over IP for small offices. Like GoDaddy, FreedomVoice further differentiates itself by providing customized customer care from knowledgeable experts who take pride in solving problems.
"At FreedomVoice our mission has always been to help companies start, run and grow, and we're ecstatic to join GoDaddy who is just as passionate about helping small businesses succeed," said FreedomVoice CEO Eric Thomas. "There is great synergy between our companies and our team can't wait to get started on delivering the next generation of voice to small businesses around the world."
Mr. Thomas will become Telephony Revenue and Integration Officer at GoDaddy.
GoDaddy recently created a new Telephony business unit to oversee the Company's communication products strategy and execution, including products related to FreedomVoice. The business unit will be led by Intuit and small business veteran Barry Saik, who recently joined GoDaddy as General Manager and Senior Vice President, Telephony.
FreedomVoice products will continue to be available online and through partners. GoDaddy and FreedomVoice plan to deliver new cloud-based voice products in the near future.
FreedomVoice will continue to maintain offices in Encinitas, California.
Apart from this, GoDaddy has also announced a strategic partnership with ShopClues. With domains from GoDaddy, ShopClues merchants can now drive potential customer web traffic directly to their page listed on ShopClues and at the same time, building their online identity and brand with a distinct domain name from GoDaddy. The ability to drive traffic to their specific page using a short and memorable URL, presents SMBs with the ability to offer promotions and better target its customers with their own website address via a link as the 'call-to-action'.
To register for a new domain name, customers can visit Domains on GoDaddy and who already have a domain name, GoDaddy enables customers to quickly connect their domain name to any website or blog or to other pages they control, like Facebook, LinkedIn or YouTube profile pages.
Headquartered in Scottsdale, Ariz. USA , GoDaddy also has offices across other locations including in Washington, Massachusetts, Iowa and California in the U.S., and international locations in Australia, Brazil, Canada, India, Mexico, Netherlands, Singapore and in the UK.
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