GoDaddy CEO Blake Irving to retire and name COO Scott Wagner as his successor by year end

Website hoster GoDaddy Inc said Chief Executive Blake Irving would retire at the end of this year and named Chief Operating Officer Scott Wagner as his successor.

Irving would continue to serve on GoDaddy’s board through June 2018 and work closely with Wagner through the transition, the company said on 24 August.

Irving, who joined GoDaddy in 2013, had overseen the company’s initial public offering in 2015 and led its acquisition of Host Europe Group for 1.69 billion euros ($1.82 billion), its biggest deal ever.

Wagner also joined GoDaddy in 2013 after a 13-year stint at private equity firm KKR, where he served as a partner. He was a key member of the team that invested in GoDaddy in 2011, and had served as interim CEO before Irving took over. GoDaddy provides a marketplace to buy domain names and website building tools.

This news comes after GoDaddy said on 13 August that it had forced The Daily Stormer  to move its domain to another provider after the extremist web site posted an article denigrating the woman who was killed at a white nationalist rally in Virginia.

“We informed The Daily Stormer that they have 24 hours to move the domain to another provider, as they have violated our terms of service,” GoDaddy posted on its official Twitter page.