GoDaddy Announces Layoffs of “About 8%”

In some unfortunate domain industry news this evening, GoDaddy announced a round of layoffs that will impact “about 8%” of its global workforce. The news was shared today in a press release entitled, “A message from GoDaddy CEO Aman Bhutani.” The content of the press release was an email that was reportedly sent to GoDaddy employees today.

Layoffs at a large company like GoDaddy aren’t surprising right now. Tech companies around the world have been laying off varying amounts of staff lately. In fact, Fast Company published an article with the question, Why is every tech company suddenly laying off about 6% of its workforce?

I know quite a few GoDaddy employees, and I was sorry to read the news today. Hopefully those who are impacted by these layoffs are able to find employment quickly. Perhaps some will go off and build a successful business on their own.

Here’s the press release from today:

A message from GoDaddy CEO Aman Bhutani
GoDaddy CEO Aman Bhutani sent the following email to GoDaddy employees February 8, 2023.

Team,

Today, we are announcing a plan to reduce the size of our global team by about 8%. This will come as difficult news for many valued and respected GoDaddy team members.

To start, I want to express my gratitude to those who will be leaving. You played an important part in our journey and helped entrepreneurs around the world achieve their dreams and build successful microbusinesses. Every day, you made a difference for customers and your teammates. While our paths diverge today, I wish you well and hope our paths cross again.

Within the next hour, impacted team members will receive a meeting invite from their leadership to learn the details of their transition, aligned with local employment processes. These meetings will mostly happen today, with some taking place tomorrow morning locally. Most impacted roles are in the U.S., affecting multiple levels in the company and every division.

The planned impacts also include ongoing work to more deeply integrate three of our brands – Media Temple, Main Street Hub and 123 Reg – into GoDaddy.

Media Temple customers and team members are already aware of the transition to GoDaddy infrastructure as we work to sunset the brand, and team members will receive a meeting invite today to explain the path forward for them.
– Main Street Hub customers and team members are aware of the continuing transition of – – Main Street Hub customers to GoDaddy products. As we continue the migration, we will share updates with team members by March 1, 2023.
– 123 Reg will continue as a customer-facing brand and take full advantage of what GoDaddy offers in terms of technology and capabilities. Some roles in 123 Reg may not be required longer-term and we will notify any impacted team members by March 1, 2023.

During the last year, we worked hard to deliver value for our customers and results for GoDaddy. Despite increasingly challenging macroeconomic conditions, we made progress on our 2022 strategic initiatives and continued our efforts to manage costs effectively. The discipline we embraced was important but, unfortunately, it was not sufficient to avoid the impacts of slower growth in a prolonged, uncertain macroeconomic environment.

Over the next couple of days, we will focus our time and attention on thanking and saying goodbye to those leaving GoDaddy. We will offer each of them a transition package, in line with local laws and customs. In the U.S., this will include 12 weeks of paid administrative leave with continued core benefits coverage. In addition, departing team members will be eligible for two additional weeks of severance per year worked (with a minimum of four weeks), extended healthcare benefits, as well as outplacement and immigration support to help with their transition.

In our Town Hall tomorrow, we will share more context on these changes. In the coming weeks, we will come together to talk about our 2023 strategic initiatives and our path forward to continue to empower entrepreneurs everywhere.

Aman