While the world’s largest online family history resource, Ancestry.com, awaits a possible buy out, they are keeping busy 
buying other companies. Yesterday, Reuters reported that Permira Advisers LLP has emerged as the front-runner to take Ancestry private in a deal that could exceed $1.5 billion. (Read more about the possible acquisition at PEHUB)
Today, Ancestry released the following press release about the company’s latest acquisition, San Francisco based 1000Memories. You can learn more about 1000 Memories by listening to my interview with Michael Katchen, Director of Business Development at 1000Memories in Genealogy Gems Podcast Episode 119.
(PROVO, Utah) – Oct. 3, 2012 – Ancestry.com Inc. (Nasdaq: ACOM), the world’s largest online family history resource, announced today it has acquired 1000memories Inc., the San Francisco-based startup that has been focused on helping people digitize and share the estimated 1.7 trillion paper photos stored in their albums, attics, and shoeboxes.
Founded in 2010, 1000memories’ mission has been to help families and friends preserve their personal memories and share those memories with others. 1000memories will provide Ancestry.com members a compelling new way to share their family history discoveries with friends and family as well as scan and add their old photos to their family trees. It also brings an innovative team to the Ancestry.com family to advance Ancestry.com members’ abilities to share the past with others.
The 1000memories acquisition also brings with it the popular ShoeBox app that turns mobile phones into photo scanners providing an easy way to digitize, save, and share photos online or on-the-go. With more than 500,000 downloads since its launch, the ShoeBox app has become a popular way for people to get their old photos out of their shoeboxes and into the cloud.
To mark today’s announcement, 1000memories has launched a new version of ShoeBox for iOS, enabling Ancestry.com members to post photos directly to their forebears’ profiles on Ancestry.com. This is the first step in a broader plan that will see tighter integration of the two services in the coming months.
“1000memories has built a popular way for people to capture and share their memories,” said Eric Shoup, Executive Vice President of Product for Ancestry.com. “The addition of the 1000memories team, their website and the Shoebox mobile app provides a powerful boost to Ancestry.com’s mission of empowering our users to discover, preserve, and share their family histories.”
“We began with the idea that the web provides an amazing vehicle for capturing and sharing the memories we hold most precious,” said Rudy Adler, cofounder of 1000memories. “We’re excited to expand our reach to Ancestry.com’s millions of users and help them share and preserve their family stories in a beautiful way.”
Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Ancestry.com does not expect the acquisition to have a material impact on its financial guidance as issued in connection with its second quarter earnings release on July 25, 2012. It’s expected that all 1000memories employees will join Ancestry.com effective immediately.
