Money Grows On Trees in the Family History Jungle ; a Genealogy Website Sells for Pounds 370 Million, but Is This a Boom Or

Summary

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The internet may be the economy of tomorrow, but it is the past that is proving to be one of its biggest business opportunities with companies that specialise in family history raising values not seen since the dotcom boom. Spurred on by programmes such as the BBC's Who Do You Think You Are?, interest in genealogy websites has rocketed, earning multimillion pound profits for owners and leaving sceptics wondering whether the boom is real or just another internet bubble.

Fears of overvaluations were fuelled ten days ago when the world's largest online family history business, The Generations Network, was bought in a Pounds 370 million deal.

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Extract

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Money Grows On Trees in the Family History Jungle ; a Genealogy Website Sells for Pounds 370 Million, but Is This a Boom Or

But one source suggested the group, which is behind the UK family history site ancestry.co.uk, was generating revenues of $150 million (Pounds 73 million) a year.

A UK spok...

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