Two weeks after the new owners took over, the Genealogy.com Web site still does not mention the acquisition. The Web site simply says "Where We Are Today—In the fall of 1999, A&E Television Networks, Hearst New Media and Technology, The Learning Company Division of Mattel, Inc., Thomas H. Lee Company, and Weston Presidio Capital announced a joint partnership to back a brand-new company—Genealogy.com, LLC." However, on February 2 the company sent a brief letter to its business partners announcing the change.

Genealogy.com has had a long and interesting history. Kenneth L. Hess actually founded the Fremont, California, company in the early 1980s under the corporate name of Banner Blue Software. The company did not produce genealogy software at first. Instead, it produced an MS-DOS program to produce corporate organization charts. The program was called Org Plus and became very successful.

If you think about the typical org chart, you realize that it resembles a descendants chart or a pedigree chart. Apparently, Banner Blue’s customers had the same thought as many of them used Org Plus to create their family tree charts. Banner Blue realized there was a market for software that creates nice looking genealogy charts, so Family Tree Maker was born as an MS-DOS product in 1989. It has since been updated numerous times.

In late 1994, Banner Blue acquired Automated Archives, Inc., a major provider of genealogical data on CD-ROM. Automated Archives became a division of Banner Blue although the Automated Archives offices remain in Provo, Utah.

In May 1995, Broderbund Software, Inc. acquired Banner Blue Software. Broderbund is a leading publisher of consumer software in many fields. The company saw strength in adding genealogy software to its portfolio. The name of Banner Blue disappeared from the product, to be replaced by Broderbund Software.

In August of 1998, Broderbund Software, Inc. was purchased by The Learning Company, Inc., headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Learning Company publishes some of the best-known education, reference, personal productivity and family entertainment brands in the U.S. Nine months later, May of 1999, The Learning Company was purchased by Mattel, Inc.

Only a few months after the Mattel purchase, the genealogy software division was spun off into an independent company called Genealogy.com with initial funding provided by A&E Television Networks, Hearst New Media and Technology, The Learning Company Division of Mattel, Inc., Thomas H. Lee Company, and Weston Presidio Capital. Now, after less than 18 months as an independent company, Genealogy.com has been acquired by A&E Television Networks, but it will apparently continue to operate under its own name as a separate division.

Whew! I think we need a genealogy program to track the ancestry of Genealogy.com! I hope the company finds financial success under its new ownership.