Shareholders of Web.com Group Inc. easily approved a buyout by a private equity firm Wednesday morning, clearing the way to close the deal Thursday.
Affiliates of Siris Capital Group LLC agreed to buy the company in a deal valued at $2.2 billion.
Web.com CEO David Brown said Wednesday that taking the publicly traded company private will help its business going forward.
“We don’t have to grow for the sake of growth” to impress Wall Street, he said.
“We’re looking at profitable growth.”
Brown said the buyout will not result in major changes for Web.com, which provides website development and marketing services for small and medium-sized businesses.
“It’s going to be business as usual,” he said.
Siris agreed to buy Web.com in June as the company was planning a move to a new 218,700-square-foot headquarters building.
Brown said the buyout has not slowed down those plans, and the company expects to move into the building next year at 5379 Gate Parkway called Town Center Two.
Web.com will move 800 to 900 employees currently working in two buildings in Flagler Center in South Jacksonville.
Although most employees will not be impacted by the buyout, Brown has not said if he will remain as CEO or if there will be other executive changes.
Brown said the company plans an announcement Thursday about executive roles, and he didn’t want to say anything before it could be announced to employees.
The buyout agreement was approved by about 99 percent of shares voted, representing 78 percent of all shares outstanding, the company said.
The only shareholders who attended the meeting at Web.com’s headquarters office, which lasted less than 5 minutes, were employees of the company.
