Cupid and Friends Reunited agree website brands deal

CUPID, the online dating business, yesterday struck a deal with Dundee-based Friends Reunited to take over the operation of several of its website brands.

The Edinburgh company, which has 38 million members across its worldwide sites, will run the Friends Reunited Dating, Friends Over Fifty and Swoon sites under a ten-year licence.

Brightsolid, the online publishing arm of DC Thomson which owns Friends Reunited, will retain ownership of the domain names, trade marks and intellectual property rights under the agreement.

Brightsolid chief executive Chris van der Kuyl said : “It is clear that Cupid has real strengths in the online dating sector, so it makes absolute sense to enter this agreement with them for our dating business.

“The deal maximises the potential of the online dating services, whilst allowing Brightsolid to concentrate on our core activities.”

The licence will cost Cupid £600,000 upfront, with a further payment of £200,000 when it hits certain targets.

The Friends Reunited dating sites delivered revenues of £500,000 in the six months to 30 September, 2011.

Cupid, which owns sites including flirt.com and benaughty.com, will retain 95 per cent of profits for the first two years and 100 per cent beyond that. Cupid said the agreement was expected to be immediately earnings enhancing.

Chief executive Bill Dobbie said: “This agreement will enable Cupid to further strengthen its presence in the UK and Australian markets at low risk, and further leverage the Cupid platform.”

Earlier this month Brightsolid unveiled plans to push into the American family history market with the launch of Census records.com. The site, which will go live later this year, will provide access to all of the country’s census records.

Expanding into the US follows on from the launch last year of Brightsolid offices in Australia and Ireland and the making of television series Find My Past. Shares in Cupid closed up 0.25p at 217.25p.