Starboard acquires stake worth $800 million in GoDaddy

(Reuters) - Activist investor Starboard Value LP has purchased a 6.5% stake in web services firm GoDaddy Inc worth about $800 million, according to a regulatory filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Shares of GoDaddy, which have dropped 8% so far this year, rose 2.6% in premarket trading.

Starboard said that GoDaddy's shares were undervalued and represented an attractive investment opportunity, according to the filing.

The Wall Street Journal was the first to report the acquisition of the stake. The report also said that Starboard plans to push the company to improve its performance.

Arizona-based GoDaddy has seen a surge in online traffic as several businesses increasingly shifted to digital operations due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Starboard Value and GoDaddy did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.

(Reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing by Ramakrishnan M and Shailesh Kuber)