Ancestry.com reported its first quarter financial report yesterday, although the financial news was almost drowned out by the news of its acquisition of Archives.com. "The first quarter marked a strong start to the year. Our key financial metrics, including revenue, adjusted EBITDA and subscribers, all came in above our expectations," said Tim Sullivan, Chief Executive Officer of Ancestry.com.
In addition to the first quarter results announcement, the Company reported that its board of directors has approved a new $100 million common stock repurchase authorization.
Ancestry.com Web Site Highlights
- Subscribers totaled 1,870,000 as of March 31, 2012, a 16% increase over
- the first quarter of 2011 and a 10% increase from the end of the fourth quarter of 2011.
- Gross subscriber additions were 390,000 in the first quarter of 2012, compared to 425,000 in the first quarter of 2011 and 220,000 in the fourth quarter of 2012.
- Monthly churn was 3.6% in the first quarter of 2012, compared to 3.7% in the first quarter of 2011 and 3.8% in the fourth quarter of 2011.
- Subscriber acquisition cost in the first quarter of 2012 was $88.11, compared to $69.56 in the first quarter of 2011 and $107.88 in the fourth quarter of 2011.
- Average monthly revenue per subscriber in the first quarter of 2012 was $18.49, compared to $18.05 in the first quarter of 2011 and $18.38 in the fourth quarter of 2011.
First Quarter 2012 Financial Highlights
- Total revenue for the first quarter of 2012 was $108.5 million, an increase of 19% over $91.0 million in the first quarter of 2011, driven by growth in the Company's core Ancestry.com Web sites revenues of 22%.
- Operating income for the first quarter of 2012 was $20.1 million, compared to $14.2 million in the first quarter of 2011.
- Adjusted EBITDA4 for the first quarter of 2012 was $31.7 million, compared to $25.6 million in the first quarter of 2011. Adjusted EBITDA margin for the first quarter of 2012 was 29.2%, compared to 28.1% in the first quarter of 2011.
- Net income was $13.5 million, or $0.30 per fully diluted share, for the first quarter of 2012 compared to $9.0 million, or $0.18 per fully diluted share, in the first quarter of 2011.
- Free cash flow totaled $14.7 million for the first quarter of 2012 compared to $18.7 million for the first quarter of 2011.
- Cash and cash equivalents totaled $48.0 million as of March 31, 2012.
Recent Business Highlights
- The third season of the Who Do You Think You Are? television series premiered on February 3, 2012.
- The Company ended the quarter with more than 9 billion records; new collections included:
Almost 9 million Massachusetts birth, marriage and death records
Over 7 million records from the Historical Society of Pennsylvania Partnership
1911 England census indexes
Approximately 139 million records from the London Electoral Registers that detail the names and addresses of registered voters
Nearly 2.6 million Australian convict records from the New South Wales Convict Indents,
1788-1842 and New South Wales Colonial Secretary's Papers, 1788-1856
- The Company launched a new interactive image viewer that includes "gridline technology," which highlights rows, columns and cells to feature specific ancestors on a record page, provides narrative pop up tips to tell more of the record's story, plus new dynamic viewing controls.
- The Company upgraded the Ancestry.com Web sites "hinting" capability, which now enables more and better real-time hints, and created an "all-hints" page on the website where users can see and interact with all of their hints in one place.
- The Company upgraded and made refinements to the Facebook app, including the ability to invite others to the Facebook app, see which of your Facebook friends are using the app, "like" the app and more.
- The Company introduced upgraded capabilities for the iPhone/iPad and Android mobile apps.
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