NEW
YORK (Reuters) - Permira Advisers LLP has
emerged as the front-runner to take genealogy website Ancestry.com
Inc private,
two people familiar with the matter said, in a deal that could top $1.5
billion.
Ancestry is
focusing its discussions on Permira after
it asked the private equity firm and
its competitors - Hellman & Friedman LLC and TPG Capital LP -
to improve on their offers, the people said. Talks with Permira could still
fall apart and there is no certainty a deal will be reached, they added.
The price
under negotiation could not be learned, but sources familiar with the matter
had previously told Reuters that Ancestry was seeking more than $35 per share
for a sale, valuing the company at over $1.5 billion.
Provo,
Utah-based Ancestry, whose website helps users trace their family roots by
scouring online records, declined to comment. Permira and TPG declined to
comment while Hellman & Friedman did not immediately respond to a request
for comment.
Ancestry
received offers from the three private equity firms in August and none of the
bidders met the company's price expectations at the time, sources familiar with
the matter previously told Reuters.
Ancestry
closed trading on Tuesday down 1.7 percent at $29.69.
Ancestry has
about 2 million paid subscribers. The website said in July it had discovered
that U.S. President Barack Obama is the eleventh great-grandson of John Punch,
the first documented African enslaved for life in the American colonies.
Ancestry
suffered a blow in May when U.S. network NBC decided not to renew the company's
TV show for a fourth season. The company sponsored the U.S. version of the
popular British series "Who Do You
Think You Are?"
The show,
built around tracing celebrities' family histories through Ancestry.com's
databases, was a major driver of new subscriber additions for the company's
website.
Spectrum
Equity Investors LP first made a minority investment in Ancestry in 2003 and
four years later partnered with management to purchase a majority interest.
Spectrum's stake in Ancestry was 31 percent as of the end of June.
Frank
Quattrone's Qatalyst Partners is advising on the process, the sources said.
Qatalyst was not immediately available for comment.
(Reporting
by Greg Roumeliotis and Soyoung Kim in New York; Editing by Gerald E.
McCormick, Bernard Orr)
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