Ancestry.com, the giant genealogy and DNA website, has routed more than a billion dollars in dividends through its Irish arm in the last two years, newly published accounts show.
The accounts for Ancestry Ireland Unlimited Company (AIU), based in Dublin, show that it controls partnership between itself and another Irish company called Ancestry Family History Unlimited Company (AFH). The partnership is called Ancestry.com Operations LP.
The accounts show that AIU received a dividend of $902.5 million (€862.5 million) from the partnership last year, while in 2022 the partnership routed $186.2 million to AIU.
At the same time, AIU also paid out $99 million in a dividend to an entity called Ancestry Global Holdings Limited. In the last four years AIU has also paid out more than $235 million in total dividends, having made distributions of $95.5 million in 2022, $5 million in 2021, and $36 million in 2020.
Ancestry Ireland Unlimited Company is the owner of several subsidiaries of Ancestry.com, and it is ultimately owned by Arches Holdings Inc, the overall parent company of Ancestry.com, which made more than $1 billion from the sale of genealogical and DNA analysis services last year.
Accounts for Arches Holdings Inc filed to the Irish companies office show that in 2023 it had total subscription revenue of $1.31 billion, slightly down from the $1.32 billion it made in 2022.
The majority of its revenue – around $1 billion – comes from family history research, while around $185 million comes from its DNA analysis business
Its gross profit also fell, from $999 million to $987.4 million and after various costs and expenses it made a loss for the year of $125.6 million, a rise on its previous year’s loss of $82.1 million.
The majority of its revenue – around $1 billion – comes from family history research, while around $185 million comes from its DNA analysis business.
Ancestry.com is led by chief executive Deborah Liu.
Its biggest market is the US, which contributes $1 billion, while it made $118.8 million in the UK last year, and $137.4 million in the rest of the world.
Accounts for the Irish subsidiary, AIU, show that it had revenue of $222 million in 2023, up from $218.6 million the year before. It doesn’t specify where its revenue is generated.
The company made a profit for the year on ordinary activities was $62.7 million, up from $53.7 million.
After the payment of dividends it was sitting on a retained deficit of $204.2 million, up from $165 million the year before.
Its administrative expenses also shot up during the year to more than $1 billion, which the accounts said was “predominantly driven by an increase in royalty charges payable to its immediate parent company, Ancestry Global Holdings”.
The company had 111 staff and a total wage bill of $7.8 million. Adding in the cost of pension contributions, social security costs, and share-based payments of just over $1 million, that brought the full staff costs to $10.6 million.
In 2022 it paid out $1.3 million in share-based payments.
The directors were paid $442,594, down from $1.2 million the year before. In 2022 the company paid termination payments to directors in the amount of $206,169.
AIU paid $2.87 million in corporation tax, and the accounts note that $110.9 million of its income was not taxable.
A spokesperson for Ancestry declined to comment.
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