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ITV to buy Friends Reunited
They'll get buy with a little help from £175m

By Jo Best

Published: Wednesday 07 December 2005

ITV has officially announced it is to buy school reunion site Friends Reunited for up to £175m.

ITV will initially pay £120m for the site, whose rumoured would-be buyers had included BT, with an additional £55m to be paid if the business hits certain targets by 2009.

The site, which has more than one million members, is part of ITV's push to make revenues directly from consumers – a strategy that saw it launch a mobile portal earlier this year.

Friends Reunited's management team will also help ITV to develop its online and broadband strategy, the broadcaster said.

Friends Reunited will also be integrated into ITV's website and its broadband TV service ITV Local.