Ancestry.com acquires American history websites

PROVO —

PROVO — Ancestry.com Inc. announced Thursday the acquisition of iArchives, Inc. and its branded website, Footnote.com, a leading American history website. The acquisition provides Ancestry.com with a complementary consumer brand, expanded content offerings, and enhanced digitization and image-viewing technologies, according to a news release.

Provo-based Ancestry.com anticipates that it will issue approximately 1.022 million shares of its common stock in connection with the merger, with the final number being subject to post closing adjustments or other claims under the acquisition agreement, the statement said.

Ancestry.com is among the world's largest online family history resource, with approximately 1.3 million paying subscribers.

Based in Lindon, iArchives is a digitization service provider that also operates Footnote.com, a subscription website providing subscribers with searchable original documents detailing historic events, places and people in world and American history.

— Jasen Lee