I am sure that it is well known that The Generations Network was bought by the Spectrum Equity Investments but little has been known about the specifics of the deal. Being curious, I decided to delve into the internet to determine if more can be found concerning the sale.
The Generations Network and Spectrum Equity Investments have been working with other in the past with Spectrum owning only about 10% of Generations. After the sale, it has been stated that the holdings will surpass 50% of the company with the expectation that some of the current shareholders will sell their portion of the company. The management of The Generations Network appears to be retaining a portion of the company according to TheDeal.com. The news article that I read on TheDeal.com also indicated that Ancestry plans for the future include Latin America and China (which includes a deal with the Shanghai Library). If these plans come to fruition, it will be a great asset to The Generations Network.
I personally am hoping that with the buy out by Spectrum, that the genealogical community will see a decrease in the subscription costs to the individual user of Ancestry.com. If The Genearations Network would decrease the subscription rate it would allow more of the public to access their wonderful databases which would also increase their revenue.
If you would like to read more of this article from The Deal.com, please click Spectrum Diggs Into Generations.
Also for a personal interview between the well known Genealogist, Dick Eastman and Tim Sullivan, The Generations Network CEO, click A Talk with the CEO of The Generations Network. The article is well written and is a candid interview the the CEO, Tom Sullivan
This will be interesting to follow the progress of the change over and the possible ripple effects that will occur with the major components of The Generations Network namely: myfamily.com, ancestry.com, genealogy.com, and rootsweb.com. I hope that they will not make changes to where they charge for rootsweb.
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