Ancestry.com gains in 1st day of trading

Business & Technology | Ancestry.com gains in 1st day of trading | Seattle Times Newspaper: "NEW YORK —

Shares of Ancestry.com climbed in their first day of trading Thursday after the genealogy Web site's initial public offering priced in the middle of the expected range.

The stock jumped $1.43, or 10.6 percent, to $14.93 in afternoon trading. It earlier traded as high as $16.32.

The world's largest online resource for birth certificates and marriage records priced 7.4 million shares at $13.50 each late Wednesday - the midpoint of its expected range of $12.50 to $14.50 - to raise $100 million in its initial public offering.

Underwriters are being offered up to an additional 1.1 million shares to cover overallotments, which would boost total proceeds to nearly $115 million. The stock trades on the Nasdaq market under the ticker symbol 'ACOM.'

The Provo, Utah-based company, which has more than 1 million paying subscribers, plans to use net proceeds of about $48.4 million for general corporate purposes and to repay debt. The company said it may also use a portion to expand through acquisitions or investments in technologies.

Founded in 1983 as Ancestry Inc., the company started out publishing books to help genealogy buffs research family lineage and moved to Web-based documents and tools. With more than 600 employees, Ancestry.com was spun off from The Generations Network, a group of businesses offering other Web tools, DNA testing services and Ancestry magazine."

Ancestry.com includes myfamily.com, a Web site based in downtown Bellevue. The site, which launched in December 1998, allows people to create a family or group Web site quickly.