Blackstone Group Inc. announced yesterday that they have reached a $4.7 billion deal to buy a big stake in Ancestry.com. What does this mean to users of Ancestry? Read here to find out!
Blackstone Buys Ancestry.com
On August 5th, it was announced that Blackstone Group Inc. has acquired a major stake in Ancestry.com. After the deal closes, Blackstone will own about 75% of one of the largest genealogy companies in the world…Ancestry.com.
Now before you get your tail feathers ruffled, you should know that Ancestry.com has changed hands before. You probably hadn’t even noticed and you probably won’t see noticeable changes this time either. Terms of Service and Privacy conditions will stay the same for now and when or if there are changes made, all Ancestry users will be notified.
Will this change anything in the future?
Friend and colleague, Thomas MacEntee, thinks Ancestry will eventually be split into two companies and I see what he means. He says:
Ancestry is really a data company just like Google. Buy out firms like Blackstone are known to see the value in a company based on its assets and they often will spin off and sell off portions.”
Thomas says that splitting off AncestryDNA from the other features of Ancestry makes sense. To see all of Thomas’ thoughts on this buy out, click here.
Should I do anything with my Ancestry subscription or trees?
No, not necessarily. You won’t be losing access to your subscription, DNA test results and reports, or access to your family trees. However, it is always a good idea to be up-to-date on backing up your research, trees, DNA reports, etc.
In the end, many people believe this is a good move on part of Ancestry. What do you think? Leave a comment in the comment section below!
Cheryl Dingwell-Keckritz says
Many peopleI have spoken to in the past were very concerned about how their DNA could be used. Suddenly there is so much interest in getting your DNA. Kinda of scary thinking China, Russia, etc. could end up with our DNA data!!
I’m now afraid the sale will really freak people out and make ancestry less relevant. If everyone starts making their trees private, alot of the features in ancestry will become useless. And, my other concern is that people will start cancelling their subscriptions and/or not join at all. The less people in the database, the less useful ancestry will become.
Ayana says
Big Surveillance buys up American citizens’ top DNA bank. Nothing wrong with that…unless you’ve read Orwell’s 1984.