Ancestry.com Inc., the world's largest online family history resource, today announced that it has agreed to acquire the leading Swedish family history website Genline.se.
Total consideration for Genline is approximately US$6.7 million, to be paid in cash at closing. The offer has been accepted by Genline's Board of Directors but remains subject to approval of Genline Holding AB's public shareholders and other ordinary course closing conditions.
Genline expects to provide proxy materials to shareholders immediately and hold a Special Meeting of Stockholders shortly to vote on the transaction. Genline trades on the Stockholm exchange AktiTorget under the ticker symbol GENL.
Upon completion of the transaction, Genline will join Ancestry.com's family of nine web properties globally, which together serve more than 1.2 million subscribers and host over five billion historical records and 17 million family trees containing 1.7 billion profiles.
Genline currently has more than 17,000 paying members with access to 26 million pages of digitized Swedish church records spanning more than 400 years from the 16th to the 20th century.
Josh Hanna, SVP and General Manager, International, Ancestry.com Inc., comments: "The Genline.se transaction, our first international acquisition, represents an exciting opportunity for Ancestry.com to access Sweden's avid family history community and to provide Ancestry.com subscribers of Swedish heritage in the U.S. and other markets with access to important historical content.
"For Genline members, the millions of US and Canadian records with Swedish relevance will provide many new opportunities to discover North American ancestors."
Mikko Ollinen, Genline AB Managing Director, comments: "We are delighted that Ancestry.com sees the potential of Genline. Together we look forward to continuing to grow our business in Sweden and to making new and exciting historical records, both local and international, available to our members."
Ancestry.com expects to acquire all shares of Genline AB for approximately 53 million Swedish kronor with an adjustment for net working capital. Based on a June 11, 2010 exchange rate of SEK7.94 to US$1.00, the net purchase amount approximates US$6.7 million
Genline's 2009 reported revenue was $2.4 million. Ancestry.com does not expect the acquisition to have a material impact on its financial guidance as issued in connection with its first quarter earnings release on April 29, 2010.
About Ancestry.com
Ancestry.com Inc. , the world's largest online family history resource, has digitised and put online over five billion records over the past 13 years. Ancestry users have created nearly 17 million family trees containing 1.7 billion profiles. Ancestry.com Inc. has web properties directed at nine countries, including its flagship website at http://www.ancestry.com
About Genline.se
Genline AB is the Swedish market leader in genealogy and local heritage research. Its collection of Swedish church records contains more than 26 million digitalized pages of records dating from the 1600's to the 1900s.
Genline also operates Familjeband.se, a web-based genealogy software and community for people interested in family, genealogy and local heritage, and Bygdeband, a social networking archive that enables local heritage societies to digitize their archives.
No comments:
Post a Comment