OFT to investigate Brightsolid takeover of Friends Reunited

Published on Monday 2 November 2009 21:06

BRIGHTSOLID, the Dundee firm which bought Friends Reunited from ITV for £25 million, has expressed disappointment at the Office of Fair Trading's decision yesterday to refer the acquisition to the Competition Commission.

Chris van der Kuyl, chief executive of the DC Thomson subsidiary, insisted the deal would be "good for competition and good for consumers" after it was announced that the commission is to launch an investigation.

Van der Kuyl said: "We look forward to demonstrating that this is a lively competitive marketplace with a multitude of free and paid offerings available to consumers.

"This acquisition presents an excellent opportunity to inject new focus into the iconic brands that form Friends Reunited Group."

Brightsolid revealed in August that it had agreed a deal with ITV over Friends Reunited, which the broadcaster bought for 175m in 2005.

Although the business is best known for its core website, which puts people in touch with former school friends, it also includes Genes Reunited, a genealogy site, and a dating site, Friends Reunited Dating.

Brightsolid said earlier this year that it intended to use the Genes Reunited site to create a major genealogy business, incorporating its own websites, findmypast.com and 1911Census.com.

The OFT said yesterday that the takeover would substantially reduce the number of players in the genealogy sector.

Amelia Fletcher, senior director of mergers at the OFT, said: "People's growing interest in researching their family tree has made this an increasingly important market.

"The proposed acquisition would see the three main providers of online genealogy services reduced to two and we are concerned this could lead to a reduction in choice or service for consumers. We are therefore referring the merger to the Competition Commission for a fuller inquiry."

Brightsolid was set up by DC Thomson – the publisher of the Beano and the Dundee Courier – in 1995. The business was originally called Scotland Online but was re-branded as Brightsolid last year.