Genealogy website Ancestry.com has agreed to be acquired by a group led by European private equity firm Permira Funds in a cash deal valued at about $1.6 billion.
The offered price of $32 per share is a nearly 10 per cent premium over Friday's closing price of $29.18. Ancenstry.com's shares jumped 7.8 per cent, or $2.28, to $31.46 in trading Monday.
The company operates a website for researching family history and has more than two million paying subscribers. It says more than 10 billion records have been added to its site over the past 15 years. The company develops and acquires systems that digitize handwritten historical documents, and it works with government archives, historical societies and religious institutions around the world.
Earlier this year, Ancestry.com created a nationwide name index from the 1940 U.S. Census after the National Archives posted it online. The index makes it easier for researchers to look up digital images of the actual census forms on Ancestry.com's website because they don't need a subject's exact address.
Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Youssef Squali called Ancestry.com "the world's largest online resource for family history" in a recent note.
The company went public in 2009. Last year, it earned $62.9 million, or $1.29 per share, on nearly $400 million in revenue.
Ancestry.com said there will be no anticipated changes in its operating structure with the deal. The company will remain based in Provo, Utah, and it will continue to focus on investing in content, technology and expanding product offerings in areas such as DNA.
CEO Tim Sullivan and CFO Howard Hochhauser will keep a majority of their equity stakes, and Spectrum Equity will remain an investor. Spectrum owns a 30 per cent stake in the company.
