Genes Reunited Press Office
Press office sections
Press releases
- brightsolid acquires Friends Reunited - 6th August 2009
- Genes Reunited is first to put Brits on the map! - February 2009
- Genes Reunited redesign makes genealogy accessible to all - January 2009
- Going for Gold - August 2008
- One in four Brits searches for long-lost family online - July 2008
- Genes Reunited adds 1 million military records to its database - April 2008
- 'Best of British' grandmothers unveiled and honoured - January 2008
- Brown moves into centre ground but Cameron tops the poll - October 2007
- Hidden story of slavery finally uncovered by internet age - March 2007
- Genes Reunited thrives under ITV - March 2007
- Genes Reunited wins Hitwise top 10 award - March 2007
- Six degrees of separation? How about sixty - December 2006
- Tide turning on lonely nuclear family - September 2006
- Running - or walking or dancing - in the family - June 2006
- Mr Emmerdale, meet Mrs Call centre - January 2006
- We wish you a nuclear chrsitmas - December 2005
- Friends Reunited buys 1901 census website - August 2005
- Most of us have gone up in the world, new survey reveals - June 2005
- It's official. The Irish know how to throw a good party - March 2005
- Top ancestry website Genes Reunited appoints new head - January 2005
- Don't park Granny on the sofa - December 2004
brightsolid acquires Friends Reunited
brightsolid today announced it is to acquire Friends Reunited Group from ITV plc for £25 million. The completion of the deal is subject to clearance by the competition authorities.
brightsolid is a fast growing online innovation business owned by DC Thomson, one of the largest privately owned media and publishing groups in the country. A key part of brightsolid's strategy is building businesses that link "people and places" on the internet.
Friends Reunited is the original social network with 20.6 million members. It was launched in 2000 to put old school friends back in touch with each other and swiftly became a British media phenomenon. Sister site Genes Reunited was launched in 2003 and is currently the UK's largest family history website with over 9 million members worldwide and 650 million names listed. Together with Friends Reunited Dating, the group attracts three million unique users per month.
The acquisition of Friends Reunited Group would create Britain's leading genealogy business by bringing together Genes Reunited and findmypast.com (which operate the official 1901 and 1911 Census websites respectively in association with The National Archives) and ScotlandsPeople in partnership with General Register Office for Scotland, the National Archives of Scotland and the Court of the Lord Lyon.
Andy Baker, MD Friends Reunited adds: "We are delighted that brightsolid can see the great value and future potential in the Friends Reunited Group. brightsolid is an innovative online group and by bringing our companies together this way we can build the Friends Reunited business to offer something new and different to our customers. We look forward to working with Chris and the team to develop the business further."
brightsolid is led by digital media entrepreneur CEO Chris van der Kuyl, who joined in October 2007. The broad reach of its online innovation means The Friends Reunited Group will also benefit from brightsolid's resilient data centre and managed hosting services.
brightsolid was advised by HMT Corporate Finance on this transaction and Macfarlanes provided the legal services.
