Genealogy web site Ancestry.com hopes to raise about $100 million when it goes public this week. With more than a million paying subscribers, little competition, a small debt load and a record of increasing revenues, it may fare better than other IPOs that have recently priced below their filing ranges.
The Provo, Utah-based company, which is the world's largest online resource for birth certificates and marriage records, expects to price the shares between $12.50 and $14.50 apiece on Wednesday. Underwriters are being offered up to an additional 1.1 million shares to cover overallotments, which would boost total proceeds to about $115 million.
The Provo, Utah-based company, which is the world's largest online resource for birth certificates and marriage records, expects to price the shares between $12.50 and $14.50 apiece on Wednesday. Underwriters are being offered up to an additional 1.1 million shares to cover overallotments, which would boost total proceeds to about $115 million.
Ancestry's revenue jumped from $122.6 million in 2004 to $197.6 million in 2008. In the nine months that ended Sept. 30, the company earned $12.2 million, or 30 cents per share, a more than threefold increase from the $3.5 million, or 9 cents per share, it earned in the same period a year earlier.
The stock had been planned to go public today but, so far, the online financial services are not reporting any trading activity.
