Ancestry.com Reportedly Agrees To $1.6 Billion Buyout

Ancestry.com Reportedly Agrees To $1.6 Billion Buyout

(Reuters) - An investor group led by private equity firm Permira Advisers LLP has agreed to buy genealogy website Ancestry.com Inc for about $1.6 billion, or $32 a share, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the deal.

In addition to Permira, the buyout group includes the private equity firm's co-investors, members of Ancestry.com's management, including Chief Executive Tim Sullivan and Chief Financial Officer Howard Hochhauser, and Spectrum Equity, which owns about 30 percent of Ancestry.com, the Journal said.

Provo, Utah-based Ancestry, whose website helps users trace their family roots by scouring online records, and Permira Advisers, could not immediately be reached for comment outside regular U.S. business hours.

Shares of Ancestry.com closed at $29.18 Friday on the Nasdaq.

Ancestry received offers from the three private equity firms in August and none of the bidders met the company's price expectations at the time, sources familiar with the matter previously told Reuters.

(Reporting by Sakthi Prasad; additional reporting by Vrinda Manocha in Bangalore; Editing by Louise Heavens)

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