Could Ancestry.com be considering the idea of putting itself up for sale? It appears that the company has been working on finding some buyers. So far, there are few concrete facts and much speculation. What is known is that the talk about the potential sale has increased the value of shares of Ancestry.com stock by 11%.
Recently, NBC announced that it will not renew the popular “Who Do You Think You Are?” television show for season four. The show is currently in season three, and little has been said about why, exactly, NBC decided to cancel the series.
Ancestry.com was very involved in the show, and it wouldn’t be entirely incorrect to say that the genealogy website got some free advertising from it. The announcement of the cancelation of “Who Do You Think You Are?” caused Ancestry.com’s stock price to drop nearly 14%.
A few months ago, Ancestry.com bought Archives.com Inc., for $100 million. Ancestry.com paid cash for this purchase and will assume liabilities. Both websites continue to exist, but are now connected to each other.
Bloomberg reported that Ancestry.com Inc., was weighing the idea of a sale, and that it was working with Frank Quattrone of Quatalyst Partners LLC to find buyers. Further details about this are being kept quiet at this time. There is potential that private-equity firms will be interested in the sale, or perhaps some social network providers.
The Motley Fool points out a few reasons why Facebook probably won’t be interested in buying the popular genealogy website. One reason is that there is a rumor floating around the internet that Facebook is planning on charging people to use the Facebook website.
This is, so far, nothing more than a rumor. If Facebook purchased Ancestry.com., which does require people to pay in order to use the website, it could add fuel to the rumor that Facebook wants to move to a model where it begins requiring people to pay in order to use Facebook. On the other hand, Susan Etlinger, an analyst at Altimeter Group, points out that Facebook might think that adding a “family-centric” resource, like Ancestry.com, would add value to what Facebook already offers users.
What will most likely happen is that a private equity firm will end up buying Ancestry.com. Of course, that is assuming that Ancestry.com is, in fact, going to put itself up for sale. Things are a bit up in the air at the moment, at least, in terms of what information is being released publicly.
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