Israeli start-up MyHeritage buys German site

OSN is genealogy company's MyHeritage's third acquisition.

Israeli genealogy start-up MyHeritage Ltd. is continuing its acquisition campaign. "TechCrunch" reports that the company has acquired German genealogy website OSN, which operates seven genealogy sites in Germany, Poland and in the US. The merger gives MyHeritage new features and a combined 540 million profiles, 47 million active users and 13 million family trees.

MyHeritage CEO Gilad Japhet founded the company in 2003, and its genealogy service was launched in late 2005. The service uses smart matching technology to create a kind of social network that enables users to establish a family tree, and to link up to other family trees on their own. The website supports 35 languages.

MyHeritage has raised $24 million to date from Accel Partners, Index Ventures, and private investors Aviv Raiz and Yuval Rakavy.

OSN is MyHeritage's third acquisition, following the acquisition of London-based social network site Kindo in late 2008, and Pearl Street Software of the US in 2006. MyHeritage did not disclose the amount it paid for OSN, just as it did not disclose the amount of its previous acquisitions. However, sources estimate the figure at a few million dollars.

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on February 7, 2010

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2010

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