ITV Sells Friends Reunited At Loss Of £150M
The leading UK independent television company ITV today announced the sale of the once high-flying website Friends Reunited for £25m in cash.
The site, which ITV acquired for £175m in 2006 and has lost market share to the likes of Facebook, is being acquired by DC Thomson-owned Brightsolid, the owner of genealogy website Findmypast.com.
That was the only bad news for ITV today as they also reported a pre-tax loss of £105m in the first six months of 2009 as revenues fell 12pc to £909m.
Despite the success of shows such as Dancing On Ice and Britain’s Got Talent, the recession sent the ITV’s advertising revenues down 12pc, with revenues generated from its TV channels falling 15pc. Michael Grade, the company’s executive chairman, has responded to the downturn by cutting costs and ITV said today that it’s on track to cut costs by £155m this year.
