Blackstone wraps up $4.7bn acquisition of US genealogy company Ancestry

Private equity funds managed by Blackstone have wrapped up their previously announced $4.7 billion acquisition of US genealogy company Ancestry.

The online family history business has been acquired from Silver Lake, GIC, Permira, Spectrum Equity, and other equity holders.

Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC will continue to keep a significant minority stake in the genealogy company.

David Kestnbaum – a Senior Managing Director at Blackstone, and Sachin Bavishi – a Managing Director at Blackstone, said: “We are very excited about Ancestry’s future, as the company continues to demonstrate strong growth as the industry leader.

“We look forward to partnering with Ancestry in the years ahead to help the company further expand its product offerings and drive ongoing technology innovation so that an even greater number of families can discover more about their histories and themselves.”

Ancestry is a provider of digital family history services with operations in 30 plus countries. Its DNA network is claimed to have 27 billion records and details relating to more than 18 million people.

The genealogy company is said to have more than 3.6 million subscribers, with annual revenue in excess of $1 billion.

Ancestry by harnessing the information found in family trees and historical records, helps people to get a new level of understanding regarding their lives.

The company also runs a consumer genomics business, which helps consumers with information regarding their heritage and key health characteristics.