Big News: MyHeritage Acquires the Legacy Family Tree Software and Webinar Platform

I received this information today from MyHeritage:

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MyHeritage Acquires the Legacy Family Tree Software and Webinar Platform 

TEL AVIV, Israel & SURPRISE, Arizona, August 3, 2017 — MyHeritage, the leading global destination for family history and DNA testing, announced today its acquisition of Millennia Corporation, makers of the popular genealogy desktop software Legacy Family Tree and genealogy webinar platform, Legacy Family Tree Webinars. This is MyHeritage's ninth acquisition to date.

With hundreds of thousands of devoted users since 1997, Legacy Family Tree consistently ranks among the top three most popular and highly rated genealogy software products in the industry. The Legacy Family Tree Webinar platform — which has amassed a large and dedicated fan base since 2010 — draws speakers who are leaders in their field and covers a wide variety of topics, including genealogical research methodology, DNA, and historical records, representing a full array of educational genealogy content.

MyHeritage, which has developed a world-class, global mobile and Web platform for family trees, historical records and DNA testing, used by more than 90 million users worldwide, will now offer its services to Legacy's users.

Legacy Family Tree will retain its full staff and continue developing its software and webinar platform, backed by MyHeritage's resources. Millennia Corporation and MyHeritage have started joint work on a new version of the Legacy Family Tree software — version 10 — which will include the optional capability to sync family trees to MyHeritage’s website and use the free MyHeritage mobile app to make remote updates to their family trees on the Legacy software. Legacy Family Tree version 9 has already integrated matching to MyHeritage's 40 million family trees and to its historical records collection — which surpassed 8 billion records this week.

Legacy Family Tree Webinars will continue to feature diverse and informative content, and will be promoted to the millions of MyHeritage users, to increase the webinars' audience. The webinar platform will also enjoy infrastructure upgrades to support increased concurrent viewership.

“We are very happy with the Legacy Family Tree acquisition as it gives us valuable assets that are highly complementary to our own, and a solid team.” said Gilad Japhet, Founder and CEO of MyHeritage. “We look forward to providing Legacy's software and webinar platform with useful upgrades, and to welcoming Legacy’s huge user base of experienced genealogists to enhance their genealogical explorations through MyHeritage's services.”

“The more I’ve learned about and experimented with MyHeritage, the more I have felt we need to partner together,” said Geoff Rasmussen, founder of Legacy Family Tree Webinars. “The technology behind their online trees and historical records is incredible — second to none. MyHeritage has positioned itself to become the leader of the future of the genealogy industry and we can be a part of it. It’s the perfect match: our software and webinars combined with their resources, technologies, and international reach will help both of us accomplish our mission — to help the world find their ancestors.”

“I’m excited for us to join forces with MyHeritage,” said Dave Berdan, President of Millennia Corporation. “MyHeritage clearly cares for genealogists and continues to invest in desktop genealogy software, in contrast to one of its major rivals that has done the opposite, shutting down its desktop genealogy software and then selling it off. As we’re passionate about genealogy, our team is happy to have found in MyHeritage kindred spirits and we’re excited about the value that we can create together to benefit millions of genealogists worldwide.”

About MyHeritage
MyHeritage is the leading global destination for family history and DNA testing. As technology thought leaders, MyHeritage has transformed family history into an activity that is accessible and instantly rewarding. Its global user community enjoys access to a massive library of historical records, the most internationally diverse collection of family trees and groundbreaking search and matching technologies. Launched in November 2016, MyHeritage DNA is a technologically advanced, affordable DNA test that reveals ethnic origins and previously unknown relatives. Trusted by millions of families, MyHeritage provides an easy way to find new family members, discover ethnic origins, and to treasure family stories, past and present, for generations to come. MyHeritage is available in 42 languages. www.myheritage.com

About Millennia Corporation
Millennia Corporation is located in Surprise, Arizona. The company provides top-quality genealogy software so people can find, track, and share their family history. It is also the publisher of the award-winning FamilyTreeWebinars.com webinar series, now with more than 750 hours of quality genealogy education. For additional information on Millennia or its products, visit http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com.
For more information about this announcement and for answers to frequently asked questions, visit: 
http://news.legacyfamilytree.com/legacy_news/2017/08/legacy-family-tree-has-a-new-home-with-myheritage.html

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See Legacy Family Tree Has a New Home with MyHeritage on the Legacy News blog for questions and answers about Legacvy Family Tree software and Family Tree Webinars.

Well, this is a surprise!  The consolidation of the genealogy industry continues.  I can see the logic for both parties:  MyHeritage gets a relatively large software user base and access to a well-designed and full featured software partner - perhaps there will be synchronization between the software and the user's MyHeritage tree, with Record and Smart Matches already being delivered to the Legacy program user.  Legacy gets more customers for their software and webinar products, perhaps offered at a discount to MyHeritage users.  Will Version 10 of the software be in the cloud, on a yearly subscription, and interactive with a MyHeritage tree, while still providing the excellent report and chart functions to the desktop user?

Disclosure:  I have a complimentary subscription from MyHeritage, and have had it for several years.  I have received material compensation from MyHeritage for travel, meals and entertainment at conferences in exchange for presentations made at luncheons and in their exhibit space.  I have received material considerations from Legacy Family Tree for presentations made on several Legacy cruises.  I have purchased Legacy Family Tree over the years, and have a subscription to Family Tree Webinars.

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