Controlling stake in Ancestry.com bought by Blackstone Group Inc.

A 75% stake in Ancestry.com has been purchased by Blackstone Group Inc, for US $4.7 billion.

I have absolutely no idea if this is a good or a bad thing - but it is certainly something worth documenting.

The full story is on Bloomberg at https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-08-05/blackstone-said-to-reach-4-7-billion-deal-to-buy-ancestry-com

Update: Ancestry has issued a statement at https://blogs.ancestry.com/ancestry/2020/08/05/blackstone-to-acquire-ancestry/

(With thanks to Paul Chiddicks and Debbie Kennett via Twitter, and Dick Eastman at https://blog.eogn.com/2020/08/05/news-flash-ancestry-com-sold-to-blackstone-in-a-4-7-billion-deal/)

Chris

My next 5 week Scottish Research Online course starts August 31st - see https://www.pharostutors.com/details.php?coursenumber=102. My book Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Scottish2 is now out, also available are Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed) at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Irish1 and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Scotland1. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.