ITV confirms acquisition of Friends Reunited

ITV has confirmed the acquisition of reunion website Friends Reunited as part of its strategy to grow non-broadcast revenues.

The £120 million deal includes an additional payment of £55 million in 2009, depending on performance.

The move makes ITV the eighth largest online presence in the UK, behind only search portals Google, MSN and Yahoo!, auction site eBay and BBC Online.

"The acquisition of Friends Reunited is a key step in the delivery of our strategy to drive new revenue streams for the company," said Jeff Henry, director of ITV's consumer division. "I am confident that Friends Reunited's unique sites and comprehensive subscription base, combined with ITV's services and vast range of content, will prove both compelling and profitable."

ITV said it intends to maintain Friends Reunited as a separate web presence but will develop an "online passport" to enable integrated billing across its online portfolio. The ITV.com, ITV Local and Friends Reunited teams will be integrated to one unit.

"Our priority has always been to make Friends Reunited bigger and better as the more people there are on the site the more friends our members will be able to reunite with, the more family they will be able to discover and the more chances of finding a soul mate or even a new job," said Michael Murphy, CEO of Friends Reunited.

"When ITV approached us we immediately clicked; they share our values, they're a national institution that is trusted and well-loved, and by joining with them, Friends Reunited gets access to a vast audience so we can connect even more people even more of the time."

Friends Reunited, one of the internet's biggest success stories, was established by husband-and-wife team Steve and Julie Pankhurst in their spare bedroom in July 2000. The site rapidly flourished as a result of word-of-mouth and media attention, outgrowing the "hobby" status the project originally held for the couple. In Febuary 2003 a new management team was brought in to develop the business further; since then a number of spinoff sites have been launched, including 'Genes Reunited', Friends Reunited Jobs and Friends Reunited Dating, tripling profits three-fold.