The Ancestry.com
Shareholders won't feel the dilutive pinch, since Ancestry is entering into a $25 million share repurchase that should more than offset the 1 million freshly minted shares that are part of the deal.
This isn't the first time Ancestry.com has done right by its investors. The stock has been a winner since going public at $13.50 a share 10 months ago, beating analyst profit targets in each of its first three quarters as a public company.
The stock hits a new high this morning, currently sporting a gain of 75% since last year's IPO.
There are 1.3 million subscribers to Ancestry.com, paying an average of $18 a month to trace their roots and help others along the way. If this seems like a superfluous subscription given the free resources available, consider that Ancestry.com's subscriber count has climbed 32% over the past year.
It's had some help along the way. After a successful first season of NBC's Who Do You Think You Are?, General Electric's
Revenue climbed 36% in its latest quarter, with earnings growing even faster given its scalable model and free cash flow more than doubling.
This week's buyout of Internet Brands
Ancestry.com is a compelling investment, outside of the recent flurry of buyout activity. It may not seem cheap -- at 35 times this year's earnings and 26 times next year's projected profitability -- but the growth and niche leadership justify the markup.
Its moat may seem iffy, but that's also why it's encouraging to see deals such as iAcquire materialize. With Footnote.com as a popular American history website, iAcquire has digitized more than 65 million original source documents dating back to the Revolutionary War. Arming itself with rich documents and high-quality images makes a valuation to Ancestry.com that much more valuable.
It's a growing family, in every sense.
Would you pay to subscriber to a genealogy site? Share your answer in the comment box below.