This is sort of a trick question. Actually, nothing happened to Ansco - at least, not to the name "ANSCO". The logo still appears on inexpensive film and digital cameras made by Haking Ltd. of Hong Kong (Ansco Photo-Optical Products Corp.). I prefer to call this reincarnation of the name - the "new" Ansco. They purchased the name from GAF in the late 1970s after GAF dropped out of the commercial film and camera business. By then even GAF had stopped using the Ansco name on its photographic products.
What I am referring to above is the "old" Ansco, the company started by Edward and Henry Anthony in the 1850s in New York City as E. & H. T. Anthony & Co. It grew to be the largest supplier of photographic equipment and chemicals to professional photographers in the nineteenth-century. Through a succession of name changes, mergers, and moves, the company (or companies) managed to survive for over 150 years until Father Time (with a little help from Kodak) finally decided to pull the plug. "Old" Ansco is no more.
I decided to do my own chronology of some of the events in the life of "old" Ansco starting around 1900 when the company functions were gradually moved to Binghamtom, New York. So If you're curious about what really happened to Ansco, just click below.
If you would like to view a few interesting Ansco camera designs, click below.