By Liam Eagle, theWHIR.com

After months spent planning for a public offering of its shares, Web hosting provider and domain registrar Go Daddy (godaddy.com) announced on Tuesday it had withdrawn its registration statement form S-1 with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and had determined not to proceed with the sale of its stock.

The turnaround was not necessarily unexpected. There had been fears surrounding the success of a potential IPO for Go Daddy since the company opened its books in May. While the company has shown remarkable growth in domain names - leaping to the top of the list of the world’s largest registrars in the last year - the company’s growth-encouraging rates have meant Go Daddy has yet to turn a profit.

In describing to employees his reasoning for withdrawing the IPO, Go Daddy CEO Bob Parsons referred to a variety of recent articles highlighting the recent poor performance of IPOs in general, and of technology IPOs in particular.

A popular comparison among analysts was the recent public offering of Vonage, a rapidly growing but not-yet-profitable technology darling whose recent IPO was widely considered a disappointment.

With a bit of “godaddyesque” bluster, Parsons put a particularly confident spin on the news.

“Go Daddy has decided not to proceed with an IPO at this time due to adverse market conditions,” said Parsons in a press release. “With a war and escalating hostilities throughout the Middle East, skyrocketing oil prices and technology stocks once again taking a beating on Wall Street - now just isn’t the right time for us.”

When speculation first began that Go Daddy was considering going public, analysts brought up the possibility that the company might not be dead set on following the process through to the end. In an interview with theWHIR in May, Tier 1 research president Andy Schroepfer said a Go Daddy IPO filing would likely be a “fishing expedition,” seeking feedback or acquisition offers.

“There are a lot of companies that don’t necessarily know if they can be independent companies,” says Schroepfer. “So a lot of them end up going through the process to find out from their bankers what other companies would consider buying them for.”

In a lengthy posting made to his blog on Tuesday, Parsons offered an explanation for why the company had pulled its IPO.

He described the company’s “best quarter ever” and said that market conditions, and some of the ways in which Go Daddy’s reported finances are interpreted had made an IPO seem like a less appealing proposition.

According to Parsons, the SEC’s standards of reporting require the company to account for domain registrations as though they are paid for on a monthly basis by customers. Domain registrations, however, are paid for up front. The result, says Parsons, is that the company’s filings don’t accurately reflect the company’s cash position. “What if you were a cash cow and nobody noticed?” he wrote.

Parsons, as outspoken a CEO as any in the technology business, also said he chafed at the restrictions imposed by the “quiet period” that proceeds an IPO. The restrictions required him to put his “Life Online” radio show on hiatus and limited the freedom he had in posting to his blog.

Ultimately, he said, market conditions were not ready to support a Go Daddy IPO, despite the company having received the “green light” from the SEC.

“Last week when the SEC informed us our filing was accepted as being ready to go, market conditions were a terrible mess,” he wrote. “In fact, inflation worries, say analysts, are bleeding into the tech sector. For all these reasons, I liken the timing of us getting the ‘green light’ to a person being told his car is in perfect condition just before it’s about to be driven into a wall.

“I don’t expect market conditions to correct themselves for sometime. I feel we owe it to ourselves to withdraw our filing until better and more stable times arrive.”

Parsons will return Wednesday night to his Life Online (lifeonline.com) radio program, at which point he will further discuss the decision to reverse the IPO.

Web hosting provider LunarPages announced on Friday it has cut the price on additional domain names from $14.95 to $2.99 each for a limited time for new and existing customers.

LunarPages says the industry has become extremely competitive recently and that many Web hosts have been dropping their prices to the point that they are running at a loss and are resorting to overselling.The company says customers have been surprised by its most recent offer, especially since it already provides a free domain for life. Domains purchased during this offer will also include renewals at the original price for as long as the customer is hosted with the company.

“We won’t compromise our business model, server stability or uptime by overselling which will leave our customers feeling cheated and forced to upgrade to a dedicated server,” says Amy Armitage of Lunarpages. “To remain competitive we have found another way to enhance our offerings, without compromising the level of service and support that has earned us the reputation as leaders and veterans in the Web hosting industry. Low priced domain names and partnerships with leading companies enable us to give back to our customers without resulting in a price increase to them.”

Private label Web service provider ResellerClub (resellerclub.com) announced on Thursday that it has added the .cc and .tv domains to its portfolio of services. The domains will be available to resellers at the promotional introductory prices of $17.99 and $24.99, respectively.  

The addition of the .cc and .tv domains, says ResellerClub, will enable the company’s resellers to extend their own product portfolios, and expand their global reach. Resellers can also promote .cc and .tv domains as alternatives to domains already taken in the generic domain space.

“Introducing .cc and .tv perfectly falls in line with our philosophy of providing resellers with the most comprehensive product portfolio at phenomenally low prices,” says Bhavin Turakhia, CEO of ResellerClub. “Resellers are exposed to tremendous value while reselling .cc and .tv domain names as these can easily translate into valuable branding entities for various media, financial and email organizations.”

ResellerClub says the integration of the new domains is the latest addition to a growing list of domains already offered through its service. Domains already in various stages of implementation include .tw, .mobi, .cn, .nz and .uk, among others.

Web hosting provider and domain registrar Go Daddy (godaddy.com) announced on Wednesday it has added another layer of security to its Web hosting by deploying TippingPoint Intrusion Prevention Systems to block attacks.

GoDaddy put TippingPoint systems in place to protect all dedicated and virtual dedicated hosting servers at no additional cost. The intrusion prevention system is an in-line device that scans traffic and, based on rules, determines whether data packets are legitimate or malicious.

“Security is a top priority at Go Daddy,” says Neil Warner, Go Daddy’s chief information security officer. “TippingPoint systems have an established track record of success. Our customers deserve this extra protection for their hosting accounts.”

In addition to the security feature, each dedicated and virtual dedicated hosting plan includes free rapid setup, a free SSL certificate and 24-hour customer support, physical security and network monitoring.

Web hosting provider Verio (verio.com) announced on Thursday it has launched some new domain name registration services designed to make it easier for small businesses to get started online. 

Verio’s DNR services include a domain name generation tool that provides more suggestions on suitable domain names when the customer’s first choice may not be available, and offers suggestions on domain names based on keywords the user provides. When a domain name is already in use, customers can now use Verio’s domain reservation service to reserve a name already should it become available in the future.

“Verio’s enhanced domain services are the essential foundation to provide end users with a rich domain registration and hosting experience. We listened to many current customers who wanted a simple way to kick-start their online presence, and these enhancements lower the barriers associated with creating a site and provide a migration path to full service hosting plans,” says Dennis Boyle, chief operating officer for Verio.

The new enhancements to Verio’s DNR services are available immediately to customers registering for a domain name.

Last week Verio released a hosted podcast tool with the aim of helping small businesses more easily provide unique content and updates for their customers.