Troubled British commercial broadcaster ITV has sold the Friends Reunited social networking site for £25m, about one-seventh of what it paid for it in 2005.
Though ITV reckons the site is still profitable, losses in other parts of its broadcasting business prompted the sale.
Friends Reunited, a site initially started from a bedroom in North London by Steve and Julie Pankhurst in 2000 as a way for people to find their old school friends, has seen its market share overtaken by the likes of Facebook.
The site arguably shot itself in the foot by choosing to charge members for “advanced” features such as being able to contact one another via private message — something that Facebook and other social networks subsequently offered gratis. FR later dropped the charge.
The site has been bought by Brightsolid. The company seems keen to differentiate its online services from other networks by offering UK-centric genealogy and census information.
Originally posted on August 6, 2009 @ 7:29 am