Business VoIP Featured Article

GoDaddy Working on Deal to Offer Business VoIP

May 24, 2016

By Susan J. Campbell, Business VoIP Contributing Editor

GoDaddy likes to be the go-to for your business and its latest move aims to improve options when it comes to business VoIP. The Internet hosting provider is expanding its communications services for small businesses with the purchase of FreedomVoice for $42 million in cash. Now, a recently created telephony business unit will oversee the company’s communications strategy.


Natalie Gagliordi covered the announcement in this ZDNet piece, highlighting the small business domain host’s plans to use the acquisition to offer cloud-based telephony services to small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). In addition to the $42 million price tag, there could also be as much as $5 million in potential future payments once milestones are met.

With the addition of FreedomVoice to the GoDaddy portfolio, the provider will be able to offer products to support business VoIP capabilities, such as a custom cloud number that will automatically route business calls to a user’s mobile device. GoDaddy will also be able to offer a cloud-based phone system that delivers business VoIP for the small office environment.

According to Steven Aldrich, GoDaddy's chief product officer, there are more than 14 million customers relying on GoDaddy products and many of them struggle in the quest to identify simple and affordable telephony solutions. With this move, GoDaddy will be able to offer business VoIP through its new business unit, eventually integrating cloud-based voice products from FreedomVoice.

The new telephony business unit of GoDaddy is set to be managed by Intuit veteran Barry Saik. The new role of Telephony Revenue and Integration Officer will go to current FreedomVoice CEO, Eric Thomas. Until the transaction is complete and GoDaddy has fully integrated offerings into its new division, FreedomVoice will continue to offer its products online and through current partners.

In the meantime, this acquisition has the potential to shake things up in the business VoIP world. While it’s true that a number of small businesses have been struggling with communications options in an effort to determine whether or not it makes sense to maintain the legacy PBX or move to a cloud-based offering, the reality is there are a number of providers in the small business space that can satisfy this need.

Where GoDaddy could shake things up, however, is in its current business relationships and the ability to convert happy customers who want different alternatives when it comes to their communications solutions. Just how successful this new business venture will be depends greatly on GoDaddy’s ability to shift its focus on this area of the market and speak to the needs of its small business clients. 




Edited by Maurice Nagle

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