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| ITV in £25m Friends Reunited sale | ITV in £25m Friends Reunited sale |
| (10 minutes later) | |
| ITV has sold Friends Reunited for £25m four years after buying it for £120m. | |
| The buyer is Brightsolid Limited, which is owned by DC Thomson, Dundee-based publisher of comics such as the Beano. | |
| The announcement came with the release of half-year results, which were hit by the worst decline in UK television advertising on record. | The announcement came with the release of half-year results, which were hit by the worst decline in UK television advertising on record. |
| ITV made a pre-tax loss of £105m in the period. There was no more information given on the recruitment of a new chief executive to replace Michael Grade. | ITV made a pre-tax loss of £105m in the period. There was no more information given on the recruitment of a new chief executive to replace Michael Grade. |
| The £105m loss compares with a £1.5bn loss in the same period of 2008, although last year's figure was hit by a £1.6bn charge reducing the value of investments made in 2000 and 2004. | |
| ITV's advertising revenues fell by 15%, which was slightly better than the 17% fall in the overall market. | |
| The broadcaster's pension fund deficit had ballooned to £538m by 30 June, compared with £178m at the end of 2008. | |
| ITV paid an initial £120m for the Friends Reunited website in 2005, but was due to pay an additional sum of up to £55m this year depending on the performance of the site. | |
| The company buying it, Brightsolid, already owns findmypast.com, which operates the official 1901 and 1911 census websites. |