Ancestry.com has more than three million paying customers and over 18million people in its DNA network which will now be under the majority control of Blackstone Ancestry.com has more than three million paying customers and over 18million people in its DNA network which will now be under the majority control of Blackstone

There goes your DNA, as Ancestry sells to Blackstone Group

  • Ancestry.com announced Wednesday it is selling 75 percent of the company to asset manager Blackstone Group Inc
  • The deal is valued at $4.7 billion, including debt 
  • The investment firm will now have majority control over the company's DNA network which includes data on 18million people
  • Ancestry.com is the world's largest provider of DNA services 
  • Blackstone is hoping that more consumers staying at home amid the COVID-19 pandemic will turn to the DNA-testing giant for its services

Genealogy and DNA-testing giant Ancestry.com announced Wednesday it is selling 75 percent of the company to asset manager Blackstone Group Inc.   

The investment firm said in a statement it agreed to acquire the genealogy provider from private equity rivals for $4.7 billion, including debt, placing a big bet on family-tree chasing as well as personalized medicine.

Utah-based Ancestry.com has more than three million paying customers and data on over 18million people in its DNA network. 

The deal with Blackstone has left some of the family history service's users unnerved at the transfer of data on their DNA to the control of another company.  

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By Reuters
By Frances Mulraney / IrishCentral Journalist

Frances joined IrishCentral in early 2015 shortly after arriving in New York from County Kildare. Working first as assistant editor, she became the editor of IrishCentral in August 2018. 

A graduate of Dublin City University and Trinity College Dublin, she had worked in Irish-language media and research before moving to the US and was awarded two national student media awards for Irish-language journalism while studying in DCU and Trinity. She also teaches Irish with the Irish Arts Center and previously taught with Fordham University. 

(Source: dailymail.co.uk; August 6, 2020; https://tinyurl.com/y3t5vc4s)
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