Morning:
8°c
ITV today sold Friends Reunited for £25million to the company behind The Beano just four years after buying it for £170 million.
The struggling broadcaster offloaded the social network to publisher DC Thomson which already owns family history website FindMyPast.com.
DC Thomson plans to combine the website with Genes Reunited which was set up by Friends Reunited in 2003 and has more than nine million members worldwide. The deal creates the biggest family history website in Britain.
ITV today reported losses of £105 million for the first six months of the year as advertising revenues slumped.
DC Thomson has been publishing The Dandy since 1937 and The Beano since 1938. Its family history business has thrived since the creation of FindMyPast.com and genealogy is now one of the most popular hobbies thanks to an explosion of information on the internet and TV shows such as Who Do You Think You Are. FindMyPast.com operates the official 1901 and 1911 census websites.
Chris van der Kuyl, of Brightsolid, the DC Thomson subsidiary behind FindMyPast.com, said: "We are delighted with the deal. Friends Reunited is such an incredibly strong brand and Genes Reunited is one of the most recognised family history brands in the country.
"We see the acquisition as an exciting opportunity to provide new focus for and build on the Friends Reunited brands. These brands attract over three million unique users per month." Friends Reunited was launched in 2000 by Steve and Julie Pankhurst to put old school friends back in touch with each other.
ITV paid £170 million for it in 2005 but it struggled to retain members because it charged for access and faced competition from MySpace, Facebook and Bebo. Friends Reunited dropped its subscription charges in May last year and still has 20.6 million members.
