Blackstone, a private equity firm, agreed to acquire a majority stake in Ancestry, a genetic analysis company that helps customers discover their family history and gain actionable insights about health and wellness, from Silver Lake, GIC, Spectrum Equity, Permira, and other equity holders for a total enterprise value of $4.7 billion.
Existing Ancestry investor GIC will retain a minority stake in the company.
According to a Blackstone, Ancestry has $1 billion in annual revenue and over 3 million paying customers from more than 30 countries.
According to Ancestry, the company has a collection of 24 billion records and over 18 million people in its growing AncestryDNA network, where customers can discover their family story and gain actionable insights about their health and wellness.
“Our entire leadership team is thrilled to have the opportunity to partner with Blackstone to further accelerate Ancestry’s global leadership in family history and consumer genomics, and to help us achieve our mission to empower journeys of personal discovery to enrich lives. Looking ahead, in collaboration with Blackstone, we will continue to leverage our unique content, powerhouse consumer brand, and technology platform to expand our global Family History business while bringing to life our long-term vision of personalized preventive health,” said Margo Georgiadis, President and Chief Executive Officer of Ancestry.
Ancestry harnesses the information found in family trees and historical records to help people gain a new level of understanding about their lives. Ancestry also operates a consumer genomics business, which informs consumers about their heritage and key health characteristics.
Last year Ancestry forayed into digital health with the launch of a new product called AncestryHealth, which allows consumers to get health information based on their DNA results. It also provides educational resources and genetic counseling services for consumers.
More recently, the company added a new product (next-generation genomic sequencing) that screen for genes associated with several conditions, including heart disease, colon cancer, breast cancer, and blood disorders.
Morgan Stanley served as lead financial advisor to Ancestry. Barclays also served as a financial advisor to Ancestry. Latham & Watkins is serving as legal advisor to Ancestry and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett is serving as legal advisor to Blackstone. Dechert is serving as a legal advisor to GIC. Bank of America and Credit Suisse provided committed debt financing for the transaction.
“We believe Ancestry has a significant runway for further growth as people of all ages and backgrounds become increasingly interested in learning more about their family histories and themselves. We look forward to investing behind further data, functionality, and product development across Ancestry’s market leading platform to continue to provide a differentiated service,” said David Kestnbaum, a Senior Managing Director at Blackstone.
