Posted on 03/03/2023 10:21:13 AM PST by Golden Eagle
Blackstone Group Inc BX.N said on Wednesday it agreed to acquire genealogy provider Ancestry.com Inc from private equity rivals for $4.7 billion, including debt, placing a big bet on family-tree chasing as well as personalized medicine.
Ancestry.com is the world’s largest provider of DNA services, allowing customers to trace their genealogy and identify genetic health risks with tests sent to their home.
Blackstone is hoping that more consumers staying at home amid the COVID-19 pandemic will turn to Ancestry.com for its services.
“We believe Ancestry has significant runway for further growth as people of all ages and backgrounds become increasingly interested in learning more about their family histories and themselves,” David Kestnbaum, a Blackstone senior managing director, said in a statement.
The deal is Blackstone’s first acquisition out of Blackstone Capital Partners VIII, the largest-ever private equity fund that raised $26 billion from investors last year.
Ancestry.com has more than 3 million paying customers in about 30 countries, and earns more than $1 billion in annual revenue. Launched in 1996 as a family history website, it harnessed advances in DNA testing and mobile phone apps in the following two decades to expand its offerings.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
We used to learn about our ancestry/heritage by listening to our parents and grandparents telling family stories.
yeah, was bound to happen.
Anyone willing to pay for it.
Great….
The government (Medicare) has it if you’ve used cologuard. Is Blackstone another name for “Starlink”? Time will tell.
Who’s got your DNA now?
A scary question every DNA member with Ancestry.com should be asking themselves and Blackstone?
“Who’s got your DNA now?“
Another step toward the end of days.
Ancestry.com is basically an arm of the LDS Mormon church. In short that means the Mormons are going to get a slice of that $4.7 billion payday.
Ancestry.com is the world’s largest provider of DNA services, allowing customers to trace their genealogy and identify genetic health risks with tests sent to their home.
...
who then sends the test to China for your results - the PLA welcomes your DNA into their worldwide DNA data base, in hopes that your DNA will provide the necessary linkage to create their Precision Medicine’s racial genetic weapon - to be used to eliminate all races except Han Chinese.
Thank you, thank you humble sir for your contribution! Many Kowtows!!!
Acquisitions happen and that’s capitalism. But I am struggling to think of something good that came out of an acquisition ... from a end user perspective. Hope they don’t screw up Ancestry.com but I would be shocked if anything good came out of this.
I had an aunt and 1st cousin take one of the tests about five years ago, and I wonder about this. There was a bit of a surprise in the results for them, which of course impacts me, but I am not sure rewriting a portion of my maternal grandmother's history will be worth it in the long run.
The fact that Blackstone (a major corporate arm of the US deep state) has bought a massive data-base of human DNA should be VERY concerning
Frankly, our folks STILL attach a tremendous stigma to bearing children out of wedlock ... so there is no question where we are from. There is no need to search via an organization that has no business with our personal information. Just my humble opinion...
Interesting point which had not occurred to me.
Thanks to one or more relatives, almost everyone is now in a DNA database. So if you are an axe murderer, they will catch you (not kidding).
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