Ancestry.com is planning to go public

A privately held Utah County firm has made the first step in taking the company to the open market.

Provo-based Ancestry.com Inc. on Monday submitted documents to federal regulators expressing the company's desire to sell $75 million in company shares on the stock market.

The company claims to be "the world's largest online collection of family history resources, with localized versions available in nine countries."

"The company has filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission indicating its intention to conduct an initial public offering," Ancestry.com media relations director Mike Ward told the Deseret News. "The offering will be made only by means of a prospectus. At this time, we cannot provide any further information."

The date for approval of the offering has yet to be determined.

Ancestry.com was formerly an affiliate of The Generations Network, a group of businesses that also included the Ancestry.com RootsWeb community, Ancestry.com DNA and Ancestry.com Family Tree Maker, in addition to MyFamily.com, MyCanvas.com and Ancestry magazine, according to the company Web site.

The company stated in the filing that it "changed our name to Ancestry.com Inc." in July "to better align our corporate identity with the premier branding of Ancestry.com."

Founded in 1984 as Ancestry Publishing, the company began as a publisher of family history books helping genealogists research family lineage. The company today has more than 600 employees.

In its SEC filing, Ancestry.com reported revenues of $99.9 million for the first half of 2009, with net income for the period of $8.1 million. The company reported 2008 revenues of $181.3 million and net income of just under $2.4 million.

e-mail: jlee@desnews.com