As you might expect with a massive profit-based company, the ownership has split and changed hands over time. That was the year Ancestry opened its European headquarters in Dublin, Ireland. I used to work around the corner from the glass-fronted building. The latter may have a more anonymous moniker, but it used to be called the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation.
And yes, GIC is still owned by the Singapore government. In , the ownership structure changed once again. This time, Blackstone is the massive private equity firm. And unlike previous structures of joint equity, Blackstone has bought a majority stake in Ancestry. You may see accounts that Ancestry was started by two graduates of the Mormon-owned Brigham Young University. Allen and his business partner would acquire the Ancestry.
But the story of Ancestry starts a little earlier. In , three men founded a company to produce genealogical books and magazines. John Sittner, W. Rex Sittner, and Robert Shaw named the company Ancestry, inc. In , Sittner negotiated with his internet provider to make the data collected in their books available online.
The data included American social security death records, marriage records, and a few other collections. These online databases were free. He later referred to it as life-changing. When he finished his studies, the young man set out to digitize the written works of the Church of Latter-day Saints. Their company digitized LDS publications onto floppy disks, so of course, their target audience was the Mormon community. This reached a broader audience, and the company started to grow significantly.
Infobases was now selling genealogical data on CDs. By the company was listed in Inc Magazine as one of the fastest-growing companies in the U. At this point, Infobases was both a publisher of Mormon works and an online genealogy service. That would soon change. But not before , when they acquired a book publisher called Bookcraft — which was primarily Mormon-based material.
However, Allen was increasingly focused on growing their online family history databases and services. They also launched MyFamily.
Outside the consumer realm, though, 23andMe has had some victories. Already, Ancestry. As it aims for the consumer DNA testing market, Ancestry.
And the company has plans to expand to Mexico and Germany because the data generated in those markets will beef up the offerings in the U. Like 23andMe, Ancestry. Those deals, if they happen, risk sparking privacy worries among Ancestry. But Sullivan and Freestone are confident that even if some users grimace at the idea of their genetic information being sold to Genentech or Pfizer, the long-term benefits will make the discomfort worth it.
After all, when you go to the doctor, one of the first things they ask for is a medical history of you and your relatives. If Ancestry. Can we leverage this sort of technology into future health predictions also?
The company will also match you to other family members in its system, including distant cousins you may or may not want to hear from. Ancestry has some information, mostly collected from public databases, on hundreds of millions of individuals. But its most valuable information is that of the people who have taken its DNA tests, which totals 18 million. Traditionally, Ancestry has specialized in family tree information, leaving the personal and predictive health piece of DNA testing to competitor 23andMe and others.
But it recently has pivoted into health offerings as well. And the Blackstone merger is likely to supercharge that shift. The Blackstone executives quoted in the press release said they were interested in "product development" and "accelerating Ancestry's growth" in making the acquisition.
And that's what has some privacy experts nervous about the deal. Blackstone emphasized through a spokesperson: "We are deeply committed to ensuring that Ancestry has world-class consumer privacy and cyber security protections, and we intend to support the company's continued, significant investments in those areas.
The spokesperson said Blackstone will "not have access to user DNA and family tree data" or be able to share that data with its other companies in its investment portfolio.
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