by | Oct 22, 2012 | 01 What's New, Ancestry
Today it was announced that Permira Funds Partners is acquiring Ancestry.com and it’s 10 billion genealogical records 
for $1.6 billion. In addition to Ancestry’s press release (below), you can learn more from technology industry leader Techcrunch.com’s article Ancestry.com Agrees to $1.6 Billion Cash buyout Led by European Private Equity Firm Permira, Eyes “New Geographies.
ANCESTRY.COM TO BE ACQUIRED BY PERMIRA FUNDS FOR $32.00 PER SHARE IN CASH
Transaction Valued at $1.6 billion; Permira Funds Partners with Ancestry.com Management and Spectrum Equity to Acquire World’s Leading Online Family History Resource
PROVO, Utah, October 22, 2012 –Ancestry.com (Nasdaq:ACOM), the global leader in online family history, and Permira, the European private equity firm with global reach, today announced that a company owned by the Permira funds and co-investors has entered into a definitive merger agreement to acquire Ancestry.com for $32.00 per share in cash in a transaction valued at $1.6 billion. Tim Sullivan, Ancestry.com’s President and Chief Executive Officer, and Howard Hochhauser, Ancestry.com’s Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer, will maintain a majority of their equity stakes in the company as part of the transaction. Spectrum Equity will also remain an investor in the company.
The transaction represents a premium of 41% over Ancestry.com’s closing stock price on June 5, 2012, the last trading day prior to press reports that Ancestry.com had retained a financial advisor in connection with a possible sale of the company. The disinterested members of Ancestry.com’s Board of Directors have unanimously approved the transaction and recommend that Ancestry.com stockholders approve the merger. Affiliates of Spectrum Equity, which together own approximately 30% of the company’s outstanding shares, have agreed to vote their shares in favor of the merger.
Ancestry.com is the world’s largest online family history resource. Its global network of websites empowers users to make meaningful discoveries and share their family history. Over 15 years Ancestry.com has assembled an unrivaled worldwide collection of over 10 billion digitized, indexed records and built a feature-rich, engaging product experience for its 2 million-plus subscribers. The company’s best-in-class technology ensures access everywhere via web, desktop and mobile.
“This is a successful outcome for our public stockholders, and a great day for Ancestry.com employees and subscribers around the world,” said Tim Sullivan. “We’re excited that Permira shares our commitment to keep investing in our technology and product experience to make family history easy and accessible for more and more families around the world. Their strong investment track record in the technology and Internet sectors makes them a terrific advisor and partner as we take the company forward.”
Added Charles Boesenberg, Chairman of the Board of Ancestry.com, “Our board conducted a thorough sale process, and we are pleased to be able to offer our stockholders this premium transaction.”
Brian Ruder, Partner and Head of Permira’s Menlo Park office said: “With its pioneering technology and market leading position, Ancestry.com is an exciting investment opportunity for the Permira funds. We are thrilled to be able to back the company as it continues to develop new and innovative content, and expand in both its core markets and into new geographies. We look forward to bringing Permira’s technology and media experience to bear in supporting Tim, Howard and the rest of the talented team at Ancestry.com and its mission of helping everyone discover, preserve and share their family history.”
Ancestry.com and Permira indicated that the company will continue executing on its growth strategy and initiatives led by content acquisition and technology investment, with the support of the Permira funds and the investor group. There are no anticipated changes in Ancestry.com’s operating structure. Ancestry.com’s focus will continue to be on investing in content, technology and its user experience, expanding its product offerings in areas like DNA, and building the Ancestry.com brand and the family history category, all on a global basis. Ancestry.com will remain headquartered in Provo, Utah, with a continued large presence in San Francisco, Dublin, London and other international markets.
The transaction, which is subject to the approval of holders of a majority of the outstanding shares of Ancestry.com common stock and other customary closing conditions, is expected to close in early 2013. The company will file additional details regarding the transaction shortly with the Securities and Exchange Commission on a Form 8-K, and in proxy materials to be provided to the company’s stockholders in connection with the special meeting to vote on the merger.
The Board of Directors of Ancestry.com received financial advice from Qatalyst Partners LP, who also provided a fairness opinion in connection with the transaction, and Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz served as the company’s legal counsel. Morgan Stanley served as financial advisor to the Permira funds while Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP and Clifford Chance LLP served as legal advisors. The Permira funds were also advised by McKinsey & Company, Aon M&A Solutions, and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. Barclays, Credit Suisse Securities, Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley and RBC Capital Markets have agreed to provide financing to the acquiring company in connection with the merger.
Ancestry.com Third Quarter 2012 Financial Results
As previously announced, Ancestry.com will release financial results for its third quarter 2012 on Wednesday, October 24, 2012 at approximately 2:00 p.m. MT (4:00 p.m. ET). In light of today’s announcement, the company will no longer be hosting a corresponding conference call with analysts and investors to discuss the financial results.
by | Oct 5, 2012 | 01 What's New, Google
With more than 20 million books digitized and online, Google Books is an amazing resource for genealogy, so much so that I devoted an entire chapter to it in my book The Genealogist’s Google Toolbox. However, Google Books has been under the cloud of a law suit from publishers and authors who say that Google’s digitization project violated their copyrights.
The good news is that yesterday the Association of American Publishers and Google announced that they have reached a settlement to end a lawsuit filed by five publishers in October 2005. Publishers will now be able to choose which books are included in the project. Read more about the settlement at USAToday.com.
To learn more about how to use Google Books for Genealogy, get my book The Genealogist’s Google Toolbox, in paperback or ebook.
by | Oct 5, 2012 | 01 What's New
Old maps can tell us a lot more than just where our ancestors lived: They put events into geographic context, reveal surprising genealogical clues, and can be incorporated into Google Earth for analysis and storytelling.
It used to be pretty difficult to find old maps to use in your family history research, but it is a lot easier these days. Libraries and archives are digitizing them and putting them online. And in the newest episode (#92) of the Genealogy Gems Premium Podcast I’ll tell you about a terrific example of a website that has set the goal of have every image they possess (allowable by copyright) digitized and on their website by early 2013
Also in this episode I’m going to tell you about something pretty shocking that happened to me recently while speaking at an international genealogy conference. I was really taken by surprise, and received some unexpected questions. I will share those with you as well as some solid answers.
It’s another packed episode. If you are a member sign in now to start listening.
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by | Oct 3, 2012 | 01 What's New, Ancestry
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.
by Lisa Cooke | Sep 20, 2012 | 01 What's New, Records & databases
Here’s the latest from MyHeritage:
MyHeritage is delighted to announce the launch of a breakthrough technology for the family history market – Record Matching.
Record Matching is designed to automatically find and match historical records (from our growing collection of 4+ billion records) to the 23 million family trees on MyHeritage…but with a twist! It’s the first and only technology to automatically search newspaper articles, books and other free-text documents.
So in addition to traditional records such as birth certificates, marriage documents, census records and many more, Record Matches of newspaper articles from our 300 year old newspaper archive, the largest historical newspaper collection in the world, can help you shed new light on the actual lives, personalities and achievements of your ancestors.
for $1.6 billion. In addition to Ancestry’s press release (below), you can learn more from technology industry leader Techcrunch.com’s article Ancestry.com Agrees to $1.6 Billion Cash buyout Led by European Private Equity Firm Permira, Eyes “New Geographies.
