December 13, 2007
The Generations Network Receives $150 Million Syndicate Financing
The following announcement was written by Hercules Technology Growth Capital, Inc. It is a
follow-up announcement concerning the recent acquisition of The Generations Network by
Spectrum Equity Investors. The earlier announcement is available at
http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2007/10/follow-up-ances.html.
NOTE: The Generations Network is the parent company of
Ancestry.com,
MyFamily.com,
RootsWeb.com, and a number of other web sites.
Hercules Participates in $150 Million Syndicate Financing by Providing $17.5 Million in
Debt and $500,000 Equity Capital to The Generations Network, Inc.
PALO ALTO, Calif., Dec 13, 2007 -- Hercules Technology Growth Capital, Inc. (NASDAQ:
HTGC), the premier specialty finance company providing venture debt and equity to venture
capital and private equity backed technology and life science companies at all stages of
development, today announced that it provided a combination of $17.5 million in debt
financing and $500,000 of equity capital as part of a larger leveraged recapitalization on
December 5, 2007, to The Generations Network, Inc. - an online network of family history
Web sites.
The buyout of The Generations Network was led by Spectrum Equity Investors, a top-tier
private equity firm.
"Financing The Generations Network represents another deal in Hercules' growing
franchise of middle market lending for the late-stage group," said Kevin Grossman,
managing director at Hercules. "The company owns three of the top four genealogy Web
sites in the U.S. in terms of traffic. This fact, along with the company's strong
recent growth trends and expanding international footprint, prompted Hercules to select
The Generations Network as a financing candidate."
The Generations Network operates eight ancestry Web sites, including
www.ancestry.com and
the family social networking site,
www.myfamily.com.
"The Generations Network has established a leading position in the genealogy Web site
market, providing people with the content, community and technology to empower them to
find the individuals most important to them," said Tim Sullivan, president and chief
executive officer of The Generations Network, Inc. "We will use the debt and equity
capital from this transaction to support the next phase of the company's
growth."
About Hercules Technology Growth Capital, Inc.:
Hercules Technology Growth Capital, Inc. is a NASDAQ traded specialty finance company
providing debt and equity growth capital to technology and life science companies at all
stages of development. Founded in December 2003, the company primarily finances privately
held companies backed by leading venture capital and private equity firms. Hercules
invests in a broad range of ventures active in technology and life science industries and
offers a full suite of growth capital products up and down the capital structure. The
company is headquartered in Palo Alto, Calif. and has additional offices in the Boston,
Boulder, Los Angeles and Chicago areas. Providing capital to publicly-traded or
privately-held companies backed by leading venture capital and private equity firms
involves a high degree of credit risk and may result in potential losses of capital. For
more information, please visit
www.HTGC.com.
Companies interested in learning more about financing opportunities should contact
info(a)HTGC.com, or call 650.289.3060.
About The Generations Network, Inc.:
The Generations Network, Inc., founded in 1983, is the leading online network connecting
families across distance and time. The Generations Network, Inc. provides people the
content, community, and technology to empower them to find the people most important to
them -- and discover and share their unique family stories. The Generations Network
operates eight Ancestry websites, including
www.ancestry.com (United States),
www.ancestry.co.uk (United Kingdom),
www.ancestry.ca (Canada),
www.ancestry.com.au
(Australia),
www.ancestry.de (Germany),
www.ancestry.it (Italy),
www.ancestry.fr (France)
and
www.ancestry.se (Sweden) as well as
www.myfamily.com,
www.genealogy.com and
www.rootsweb.com. The company also publishes Family Tree Maker(R), the No. 1-selling
family history software, Ancestry Magazine and more than 50 book titles. For more
information, please visit
www.thegenerationsnetwork.com.
Forward-Looking Statements:
The statements contained in this release that are not purely historical are
forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future
performance and are subject to uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual
results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements
including, without limitation, the risks, uncertainties and other factors we identify from
time to time in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Although we
believe that the assumptions on which these forward-looking statements are reasonable, any
of those assumptions could prove to be inaccurate and, as a result, the forward-looking
statements based on those assumptions also could be incorrect. You should not place undue
reliance on these forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements contained in
this release are made as of the date hereof, and Hercules assumes no obligation to update
the forward-looking stateme!
nts for subsequent events.
Posted by Dick Eastman on December 13, 2007