RootsWeb.com Mailing Lists
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    1. [OKGARFIE] FROM LIST MOM - PLEASE READ - Acquisition of RootsWeb.com
    2. Kathleen
    3. Dear List Members: Today Rootsweb was acquired by MyFamily.com. We are being told that no changes will be made regarding Rootsweb and I am sure that is correct where you the list members are concerned. I am not sure yet how the change will effect me. We will have to wait and see. I just felt you needed to know what happened. If you have concerns, please feel free to contact me. I am trying to gather information as quickly as I can so our list will be informed as to what this really means to us. Kathleen Burnett List Mom MyFamily.com, Inc. Acquires Number Two Genealogy Site, RootsWeb.com MyFamily.com, Inc. Increases Portfolio of Sites to Extend Its Position as the Number One Online Source for Families and Family History Research San Francisco, CA – June 21, 2000 – MyFamily.com, Inc., the leading online family network, announced today that it has entered into an agreement to acquire RootsWeb.com, the oldest and largest free community genealogy site. RootsWeb.com, a San Francisco, California company, is among the most popular genealogy sites on the Internet. With more than 149 million page views in the month of May 2000, RootsWeb.com was second among genealogy Web sites only to Ancestry.com's over 187 million page views, according to Nielsen NetRatings combined home and work statistics. With the acquisition MyFamily.com, Inc. will add RootsWeb.com to its portfolio of Web sites, which includes MyFamily.com, FamilyHistory.com, as well as Ancestry.com, collectively recognized as the premier Internet destination for families. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Following the acquisition, the RootsWeb.com site will continue to be free to all users and will maintain its own unique Web site address, www.RootsWeb.com. The acquisition by MyFamily.com, Inc. will provide the RootsWeb.com site the financial backing to expand its focus on preserving, sharing, and exchanging family history research. As part of the MyFamily.com network of sites, the RootsWeb.com site will expand with additional technology tools, increased family research content and a greater range of genealogical resources. With genealogy as one of the most popular hobbies online, the addition of RootsWeb.com extends MyFamily.com's offerings in genealogy research and further enhances its leading position in genealogy research and family services on the Internet. This new combination creates a central destination for the genealogy community online, offering something for every family historian. This move comes at a time when a recent Pew Internet and American Life Study reported that 54 million people belong to a family in which someone used the Internet to research their family history or genealogy. "This is truly a winning combination for both organizations and for the millions of users who make up our audiences," said Greg Ballard, CEO of MyFamily.com. "We believe that we are in an excellent position to expand our offering to consumers through a number of acquisitions like this one. There is no question that consumers are using the Internet to connect to their families, and we plan to put in place an aggressive program that will enable us to have the most complete network for families online." Strategically, the acquisition of RootsWeb.com will provide MyFamily.com with an increase in advertising real estate and an expanded audience reach, and will provide increased transaction and commerce opportunities. In addition, it will increase exposure to Ancestry.com's free and premium subscription offerings. Currently more than 600 million records and 2,500 databases are online at Ancestry.com, with over half of the data freely accessible to all Web users. MyFamily.com, Inc. generates revenues from diversified streams, including advertising/sponsorships, subscriptions and commerce among its network of sites. "RootsWeb.com fits well with the MyFamily.com vision of creating the largest and most active online resource for families and family history research," said Dr. Brian Leverich, founder of RootsWeb.com. "This agreement will expand both the number of RootsWeb.com users and content contributors. At the same time, we have ensured that RootsWeb.com content, services, mailing lists and Web pages will remain free, while allowing the site to provide more functionality and resources to a larger audience as a result of our being part of the MyFamily.com network." As part of its ongoing commitment to the genealogical community, MyFamily.com, Inc. will continue to support volunteer, non-profit organizations such as The USGenWeb Project (www.USGenWeb.org), Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild (ISTG.rootsweb.com), The Free Births, Marriages, and Deaths Project (FreeBMD.rootsweb.com), and other groups that provide free genealogical content. RootsWeb.com is a valuable source for genealogy, with interactive guides and numerous tools for tracing one's ancestry; it hosts more than 17,000 independently authored Web sites and approximately 19,000 mailing lists and 153,000 message boards. About MyFamily.com, Inc. MyFamily.com, Inc. produces the leading online family network of Web sites. The network includes MyFamily.com, Ancestry.com, and FamilyHistory.com and is consistently ranked among the top properties on the Internet in terms of page views. MyFamily.com enables families to connect and strengthen the family bond through free, private Web sites. Ancestry.com enables visitors to discover their roots by searching more than 600 million names. FamilyHistory.com hosts more than 100,000 free surname message boards where enthusiasts can share research information. Privately held, MyFamily.com, Inc. has offices in San Francisco, New York City and Provo, Utah. Investors in MyFamily.com, Inc. include CMGI @Ventures (Nasdaq: CMGI), Eastman Kodak, America Online, Inc. (NYSE: AOL), Compaq Computer Corporation, Tango, Intel Capital, Europ@web, Pivotal Asset Management LLC and Amerindo Investment Advisors, Inc. For more information, visit http://www.myfamilyinc.com/pressroom.

    06/21/2000 03:06:50