The co-owners will all exit by the end of the year, leaving ITV's Andy Baker, who was appointed managing director of the site in May, in charge of the social network's future.
Baker, a former newspaper executive, is expected to drive revenue through improved ad targeting.
- Steve Pankhurst and his wife Julie came up with the concept for Friends Reunited in 1999, before teaming up with Jason Porter and launching the site in July 2000. By 2002, Friends Reunited had eight million unique users and, in 2003, was taken over by Murphy, Ward and Mogford. At the end of 2005, ITV splashed out £120m for it. ITV Consumer chief executive Jeff Henry at the time declared: "The acquisition of Friends Reunited is a key step in the delivery of our strategy to drive new revenue streams for the company."
- In 2005, Friends Reunited was the eighth most visited website in the UK, but now lags behind many of the 'next-generation' social networks, including Bebo, Facebook and MySpace, ranking a lowly 14th in Hitwise's social network category. Many have retrospectively questioned ITV's decision to buy the site and criticised the broadcaster for not making it free for people to connect to.
- ITV and Friends Reunited's previous co-owners have created several brand extensions, including Genes Reunited, Friends Reunited Dating, Friends Reunited Jobs and Friends Reunited Games. But they now account for only a small proportion of traffic to ITV.com, which saw monthly unique users double to eight million in November, following its relaunch the previous year.
- This year, ITV decided to scrap the subscription charge and rely on advertising. An £8m campaign was ITV's last major push for the Friends Reunited brand. Despite ITV denying that a name change is imminent, sources predict Friends Reunited may be finite and that ITV will rebrand it in the near future.