Friends Reunited to shut down. What do you mean, 'is it still going?'

Friends Reunited is finally shutting shop - news that will surprise most people by the fact that it still exists today.

The site was set up in 1999 primarily for users to connect with school friends, who they never liked and had no intention of meeting up with, but wanted to sneer at find out about.

It was then flogged off in 2005 to ITV for £175m - one year after Facebook launched.

Five years later it was sold to DC Thompson, publishers of The Beano, for £25m.

In a blog post founder Steve Pankhurst said the site "obviously had started to decline with the likes of Facebook taking over social networking.

He said: "[W]hilst it’s sad, I believe it’s time to move on and put FriendsReunited to bed. And I feel like I am the right person to do it."

Pankhurst and his wife Julie made an estimated £30m from the original sale of the biz. ®