FFHS-NEWS BRIGHTSOLID ACQUIRES FRIENDS REUNITED GROUP

[News from the Federation of Family History Societies]

For immediate release 6th August 2009

BRIGHTSOLID ACQUIRES FRIENDS  REUNITED GROUP 

brightsolid today announced it is to acquire Friends  Reunited Group from 
ITV plc for £25 million. The completion of the deal is  subject to clearance 
by the competition authorities.

brightsolid is a  fast growing online innovation business owned by DC 
Thomson, one of the largest  privately owned media and publishing groups in the 
country. A key part of  brightsolid's strategy is building businesses that 
link "people and places" on  the internet.

Friends Reunited is the original social network with 20.6  million members. 
It was launched in 2000 to put old school friends back in touch  with each 
other and swiftly became a British media phenomenon. Sister site Genes  
Reunited was launched in 2003 and is currently the UK's largest family history  
website with over 9 million members worldwide and 650 million names  listed. 
 Together with Friends Reunited Dating, the group attracts three  million 
unique users per month. 

The acquisition of Friends Reunited  Group would create Britain's leading 
genealogy business by bringing together  Genes Reunited and findmypast.com 
(which operate the official 1901 and 1911  Census websites respectively in 
association with The National Archives) and  ScotlandsPeople in partnership 
with General Register Office for Scotland, the  National Archives of Scotland 
and the Court of the Lord Lyon.

Chris van  der Kuyl, CEO brightsolid, said: "We see the acquisition of 
Friends Reunited  Group as an exciting opportunity to provide new focus for and 
build on the  iconic status of the Friends Reunited brands. Between them 
these brands attract  over three million unique users per month. This also 
marks another step forward  in the future strategy of brightsolid, widening its o
ffering to the consumer  marketplace, in particular by creating Britain's 
leading genealogy  business."   

Andy Baker, MD Friends Reunited adds: "We are  delighted that brightsolid 
can see the great value and future potential in the  Friends Reunited Group. 
brightsolid is an innovative online group and by  bringing our companies 
together this way we can build the Friends Reunited  business to offer 
something new and different to our customers.  We look  forward to working with 
Chris and the team to develop the business further."  

brightsolid is led by digital media entrepreneur CEO Chris van der Kuyl,  
who joined in October 2007. The broad reach of its online innovation means 
The  Friends Reunited Group will also benefit from brightsolid's resilient 
data  centre and managed hosting services. 

brightsolid was advised by HMT  Corporate Finance on this transaction and 
Macfarlanes provided the legal  services.

ENDS


Notes to Editors

For further information, please contact:
Debra  Chatfield
debra.chatfield at findmypast.com

About  brightsolid

brightsolid began life in 1995 as Scotland Online and is a  leading UK 
independent provider of IT business services to large public and  private sector 
organisations.

brightsolid helps its clients to design and  implement high volume, high 
availability, high performance online products and  services. It has done this 
successfully since the mid 1990s when it became one  of the pioneering 
internet companies of the time.  brightsolid has two  divisions, online 
publishing and online technology.

brightsolid's online  technology division is a leading UK independent 
provider of online IT business  services and an ISP delivering business-critical 
services.  The company's  online technology division specialises in managing 
clients' information  availability and online presence through hosting, 
internet access, applications  and business continuity products and services. 

Business Continuity is  ensured with dual location and disaster recovery 
services, including a fully  equipped Workplace Recovery suite managed via our 
partnership with  SunGard.  brightsolid operates its own data centre 
underpinned by a  resilient and secure network with dual location and disaster 
recovery  options.  brightsolid takes its environmental responsibilities very  
seriously and is ISO14001 certified, which is the standard designed to help  
organisations minimise how their operations negatively affect the   
environment.  

brightsolid's online publishing division has  significant expertise in the 
digitisation and management of records in a  fast-growing online market.   
It manages ScotlandsPeople.gov.uk, a  partnership between the General 
Register Office for Scotland, the National  Archives of Scotland and the Court of 
the Lord Lyon. 

In 2007,  brightsolid acquired findmypast.com, an online family history 
site.   findmypast.com was the first website to put the complete birth, 
marriage and  death indexes for England and Wales online.  The company also 
successfully  launched ancestorsonboard.com, the online passenger lists records 
resource, for  The National Archives in January 2006. It included details of 
over 24 million  travellers, including the historic details of the Titanic's 
maiden voyage.   brightsolid recently launched the group's first, and 
Scotland's only, online  magazine 'Discover My Past Scotland'.

Headquartered in Dundee, the  company is owned by the publishers D.C. 
Thomson and has offices in Edinburgh and  London.

www.brightsolid.com

About DC Thomson 
DC Thomson &  Co Ltd is a long-established, family-owned and run company 
which has been  publishing newspapers and magazines for well over 100 years. 
The firm  produces more than 100 million copies of their many titles each 
year including  respected local and national newspapers, books, annuals and a 
range of comics  and magazines for both adults and children. 

DC Thomson has also brought  to life some of the UK's most iconic 
characters - such as The Beano's Dennis and  Gnasher and The Dandy's Desperate Dan.

Founded in 1905 it remains a major  Scottish publisher, operating from 
three sites in Dundee, and branch offices in  Glasgow, Manchester and London, as 
well as a chain of local district offices  which help the Company retain 
its links with the communities they  serve.

The company has an unrivalled portfolio, owning other companies in  the 
publishing arena such as Aberdeen Journals Ltd, Parragon Publishing Limited,  
Peter Haddock Publishing Ltd and Puzzler Media Holdings Limited, as well as  
brightsolid.


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