Is Ancestry.com for Sale?
June 6, 2012 by ramona
Filed under Articles, Latest News
A report June 6, 2012 at Investors.com states genealogy service Ancestry.com is contemplating a sale of the company.
A leader in genealogy services since 1983 Ancestry.com is the biggest online family history service with several websites that aid people in tracing their family trees.
The genealogy giant totals 1.87 million paying subscribers and offers well over seven billion searchable records. On the inside, the company employs 1,100 people and reports June 5, 2012 from the Deseret News state that along with their recent purchase of Archives.com in April 2012 for $100 million, there are also plans to hire 50 to 70 new tech personnel.
The company based in Provo, Utah has seen an overall slow down in subscriber growth and in response is said to have hired Frank Quattrone’s San Francisco based company, Qatalyst Partners to source buyers.
Taken as a whole Ancestry.com finished the first quarter of 2012 with:
Despite this, last month’s cancellation of Who Do You Think You Are, a major promotional vehicle for the company, hit them hard when stocks dropped 13.7% after NBC announced the shows cancellation.
Ancestry.com is good but the biggest problem is the cost is very high! And the World Cost is even worst considering the lack of foreign records Ancestry.com contains. Most people I talk with have the same opinion. Bring down the price and more will definitely consider it. Run specials for membership that are more than just 10.00 off and give special prices for a few countries someone might be wanting to research. I am researching in Louisiana and the most important books for all genealogists researching in LA are Father HEBERT’s books and you don’t have them!
My opinions as well as some others I have spoken with!
I agree Shelia – These are great points. It’ll be interesting to see if they end up selling the company and if they do how/ if the new management re-think the pricing structure.
I agree with you both~~ I get a subscription every now and then but you can update some stuff with out a subscription…… but I am still learning about where/how to search. It does not help when family that is alive does not want to help……LOL like what do the have to lose if you do ALLLLLLL the work and they get a copy od all your hard work. I have gotten back to the 1000 in one part of family tree using Ancestry.com