ITV may acquire Friends Reunited

ITV may acquire Friends Reunited

	Published : Tue, 08 Nov 2005 07:05 By : Andrew Stead Print this Story

LONDON: The husband and wife team of Steve and Julie Pankhurst, who created the one of the most popular websites, Friends Reunited, as a platform for old friends to be in contact, may sell off the site to broadcasting company ITV Plc. ITV, which had examined the books of the company, may make the formal offer soon, sources pointed out.

The deal is quoted at a reported price of 120 million pounds and the money will be split between the Pankhursts, co-founder Jason Porter and the management team of the website. A clause in the deal provides for a price of as much as 170 million pounds, depending on how the site performs after the sale, the sources said.

Julie and Steve, former computer programmers, had set up their dotcom dream some five years ago in a back bedroom of their house in Barnet, north London. They own a third in the business, but have not worked for it for a couple of years. They intend to exit, having already enjoyed hefty returns from dividend payouts by the company.

Friends Reunited has more than 12 million registered users in the U.K., almost half the country's online population. It has branches in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. The company is expected to earn profits of 6.5 million pounds this year, up from 4.6 million pounds last year, after it has expanded into genealogy -- family tree research -- through sister-site Genes Connected, and created an online dating site and a job site.

The idea was conceived, after Julie, then 38 and pregnant with her first child, wanted to know whether any of her old friends from Queen Elizabeth's Girls' School in Barnet had also had children. She suggested to Steve to set up a website to provide a service of this nature and it went live in July 2000. In spite of a 5-pound registration fee the couple levied, the response was so great that within a year, it had one million subscribers.

There were several suitors for the company, intending to use it for online advertising revenue, but the management had all along been resisting any acquisition bids by putting in money on its own. However, the offer from ITV, formed by the merger of Carlton and Granada, seemed to be attractive. The competition reportedly came from BT Group and Daily Mail & General Trust.

The Pankhursts, in spite of the wealth they had amassed, do not exhibit it as they continue to live in a semi-detached house in Barnet, though slightly bigger than the one where they started the company. Porter, however, lives in a lavish manor house in Kent and has developed a liking for sports cars.