The popular genealogy site Ancestry.com has agreed to be acquired by the European private equity firm Permira in a deal worth $ 1.6 billion ($ 32 per share), according to the Wall Street Journal.

Publicly traded back in 2009, Ancestry.com has more than two million subscribers who pay at least $12.95 per month for its content and online tools. The purchase includes vesting of outstanding options. The price is a 40% premium from the price when word of the company being offered for sale surfaced in June.

The new buyers want to expand the company’s subscriber base in western Europe and make technological improvements to the website. The main goal is to make family history into more than a niche market by adding deeper archives and data for a wider international audience.

Ancestry.com was founded in 1983 and it shifted its focus to historical records 15 years ago.