After going a year with nary a venture-backed IPO in sight, here’s more proof that things are finally beginning to perk up: Ancestry.com, a genealogy service that allows user to map out and search for their family history, has filed for a $75 million IPO. You can see the full SEC filing here.
Ancestry.com offers some basic functionality for free, but to tap into the site’s vast library of historical records, which includes billions of documents and photographs, users have to sign up for a premium subscription. The company claims nearly 1 million subscribers, with an average revenue of $16.50 per subscriber. With monthly churn of 4.1% and a acquisition cost of $67.30, the company can make its money back in four months for each subscriber. In the last six months, Ancestry has made $107 million, with profits of $8 million and a run rate of $200 million.
Back in October 2007 Spectrum Equity Investors led a $300 million buyout of Ancestry.com’s parent company, The Generations Network (which now calls itself Ancestry.com Inc). But it wasn’t a complete buyout, with employees and possibly some outside investors retaining equity in the company.
Ancestry has been on the web for over twelve years, but its roots extend back to 1984, when the company published family history books. The company now employs more than 600 people.
Wow, an IPO in this market. Gutsy.
I heard another NYC based internet startup is planning an IPO next year. Things are starting to unfreeze a bit.
Sounds pretty optimistic.
IPO’s in this market are great investor opportunities, and even with limited cash a good investor will always pounce on a chance to snag a thriving businesses investment.
Perhaps in this market that means less clutter for investors to wade through and a more focused interested in this one?
how many users do they have in total? they claim 11M family members, but on each user adds many family members. 1M subscribers after 12 years doesn’t sound impressive. Plus i have found myheritage.com to be much better. good luck to them
first, they claim 11m family members added *this week*.
Second, notice the article points out they have 1m paid subscribers.
If you read the article you’d also note that they have revenue over $100m and profit of over $8m. The whole point of an IPO is to raise money that will be used to grow the business beyond what they can do with current cash flows.
If they have $100m in revenue now, I’d suspect they are shooting for at least $300m or more after putting IPO funds to good use….but I am just guessing.
6.8% net profit margin….meh
What is Twitter’s margin????? 0% ????
http://www.face...hp?id=652749724
All the Best to Ancestry.com.
This would be a very useful service, especially if it is even more affordable to a wider user base.
raj
Actually vested my stock with Ancestry when I worked there and didn’t purchase it. Oops.
yeah, but you used a fairly wise strategy. this doesn’t change that.
So are we going to see Google Ancestry pop up to compete with this or what?
No google is just going to buy their shit when their stock craps out
No google is just going to buy their shit when their stock craps out
No google is just going to buy their shit when their stock craps out
There have been at least two VC-backed IPOs recently- Solarwinds and Medidata
don’t sound like web startups though
Hard to call something 25 years old a “startup”.
hahaha! [tech]
@Zachary Roseman OpenTable, LogMeIn too…
I have to agree that this is a gutsy move. There is really no guarantee that they will make that money back.
This company is backed/owned by the mormon church…correct?
They are out of Utah and the topic is spot on.
According to LDS church theology, men and women may be sealed to each other so that their marital bond continues in the afterlife. Children may also be sealed to their biological or adoptive parents to form permanent parent-child bonds. The most significant LDS ordinances may be performed via proxy for and in behalf of those who have died.
…ya…not owned by the LDS church.
Losing 50% of customer base per year is not a sustainable business. Subscriber costs will continue to go upwards and revenue per subscriber downwards. Nonetheless, impressive that they reached $100M yr/revs.
If that is the one that is also connected with http://www.ancestry.co.uk then they have a darn sharp sign up practice. ie. read the small print otherwise your “monthly” membership is in fact a 1 off up front payment for 12 months.
I showed it to some porn webmasters and they realised they were not being as harsh enough on punters as the mainstream guys had become.
ancestry.com sounds like a website that’s popular because it got the name ancestry.com and nothing more.
no.i don’t think so
well!go
Congrats to the folks at Ancestry.Com, is Nathan Gwilliam still there? There was a time when he started up with Today.com and an application called WebWare which didn’t exactly pan out back in the early days. Good to see this venture do well, best of luck.
Other than the obvious (cash, cash, cash) why would a company that is doing well go public? You become exposed to the SEC, frivolous lawsuits, daily wall street BS, etc…. I see the headaches greatly out way the instant infusion of cash.
- or is it the escape clause of the investors? Do they want their money and run?
top dogs want to cash out
It’s a good business model with a great target audience. Ancestry.com is by far the leader and has maintained/grown their market share through acquisition. I wonder if they intend to buy out more of the market or increase reach through marketing?
interesting, dont personally use ancestry.com but it can be intriguing for many
this isn’t a company that i would invest in. There are better opportunities out there.
IPO’s starting to come back is a good sign.
They need to raise some cash because they have some fairly hefty debt obligations after a refinancing. Around $20m of that IPO will go to paying down some of that debt and they have a huge payment to make in 2012 – they could probably pay it from cash on hand but that would hurt their ongoing expansion and /or force them to look at cost reduction. With that churn you’ve got to continue to invest in the marketing crack or your cash starts to dwindle.
@religious – they are not owned by the LDS: in fact the LDS is a major competitive threat to them as they digitise and publish data for free. Interesting to see a church as a commercial competitor to an online publisher.
I’d like to point out that Ancestry.com also sells subscriptions to libraries. If you can’t afford an individual subscription, check to see if your local library bought it – many have – genealogy is big business in library land, and we consider products like this an investment in our patrons. If your library has a subscription, you get free access with your card.
Trust me, the info you get in the paid version trumps what’s available for free. Not that the free version is bad – the subscription is just better. Also, another reason to look at your library, which is more digitally savvy than people think.
CAN ANYONE TELL ME WHERE THEY ARE SPENDING THEIR $67.30/CUSTOMER? WHAT SITES ARE MAKING THIS MONEY???
THAT’S WHERE THE MONEY IS!!!
Referenced this TechCrunch article for Relative.com domain name sale on Sedo.