Friends Reunited ditches sale, plans to go global

Looks to expand instead

By Tim Richardson • Get more from this author

Posted in Music and Media, 3rd March 2003 11:48 GMT

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Friends Reunited has shelved plans to flog itself. Instead, the UK schools and colleges reunion outfit has recruited former FT.com COO, Michael Murphy, to help expand the business.

According to the Sunday Times, the site is looking to double in size by turning itself into a multi-national operation.

It already has 8m registered users with all but 160,000 coming from the UK. However, numbers could explode if the Friends Reunited concept can be exported and reworked for other countries.

There are also plans to develop the Friends Reunited brand with ideas to branch out into dating and introduction services, plus an idea to run a "Friends Reunited" music festival. [do you think they've thought of doing a range of t-shirts? Ed]

Last month it was revealed that Friends Reunited co-founders, Stephen and Julie Pankhurst, had appointed BDO Stoy Hayward to find a trade buyer or a management buy-in team for the reunion Web site.

The price? Start at £25m and head north. ®

Friends Reunited up for sale

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