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Endurance International Group Revives Possible Sale Talks

Endurance International Group Revives Possible Sale Talks

Endurance International Group Holdings Inc. has restarted a review of strategic options, including a possible sale, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

The web-hosting company is working with an adviser on options, the people said, asking not to be identified as the matter is private. No final decisions have been made and Endurance may choose to remain a public company, according to the people.

Burlington, Massachusetts-based Endurance last considered a potential sale two years ago after its peer Web.com Group Inc. was sold to Siris Capital Group. Private equity firm Warburg Pincus and Goldman Sachs Group Inc., which took Endurance public in 2013, remain the company’s largest shareholders, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Shares of Endurance, which had risen around 15% this year, shot up as much as 22% Monday. The shares were up 19% to $6.32 at 2:05 p.m. in New York trading, giving it a market value of about $885 million.

Representatives for Endurance and Warburg Pincus declined to comment. A representative for Goldman Sachs didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

Endurance, led by Chief Executive Officer Jeff Fox, was founded in 1997. It offers technology to help small and midsize businesses with email marketing, building an online presence and connecting with customers on social media, according to its website. Its brands include iPage, Sitebuilder.com, Bluehost and Domain.com.

Warburg Pincus and GS Capital Partners, the merchant banking arm of Goldman Sachs, agreed to buy a majority stake in the company from Accel-KKR in November 2011. The transaction was valued at $975 million, a person familiar with the matter said at the time. Endurance went public two years later and has since made smaller acquisitions, including Retention Science and Ecomdash.

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