Details of Ancestry.com Shareholder Complaints With Sale to Permira

The following excerpt is from the December 13 edition of the San Francisco Chronicle:

Dec. 12 (Bloomberg) — Ancestry.com Inc. executives backed a $1.6 billion buyout by Permira Advisers LLP and dismissed higher bids for the world’s largest family-history website to protect their jobs and get shares in the deal, Ancestry investors said in a court filing.

Timothy Sullivan, Ancestry’s chief executive officer, and another executive supported Permira’s bid after receiving promises they could keep their posts and roll $67 million in Ancestry shares into the newly private company, the Ancestry shareholders said in a sealed Delaware Chancery Court filing reviewed by Bloomberg News.

Sullivan and Howard Hockhauser, Ancestry’s chief financial officer, served as the lead negotiators with bidders seeking to acquire the genealogical research firm, according to the Dec. 7 filing. Sullivan also sits on Ancestry’s board.

Because of their financial stake in Permira’s bid, the executives’ focus was on “obtaining the greatest return on their equity rollover, putting their interests at odds with public shareholders,” the investors said in the filing.

Read the full article.

About Leland Meitzler

Leland K. Meitzler founded Heritage Quest in 1985, and has worked as Managing Editor of both Heritage Quest Magazine and The Genealogical Helper. He currently operates Family Roots Publishing Company (www.FamilyRootsPublishing.com), writes daily at GenealogyBlog.com, writes the weekly Genealogy Newsline, conducts the annual Salt Lake Christmas Tour to the Family History Library, and speaks nationally, having given over 2000 lectures since 1983.

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