Genealogy Chat

Hi all, being a financial hi flyer with my oap pension I always read the Financial Section in the Sunday Mail, and guess what? This site is up for sale to the highest bidder. Do you think I might stand a chance of buying it? TED.

I'll give 'em a quid for it.

Mebbe we'll see it on ebay. ;) I'll go £1.50

Hope it dosn't change too much with the new buyers........

I've put a thread on the general board about this a couple of weeks back. I've just put a thread on here about the article in this months Your Family Tree, very interesting read

Hi I'm sure g/r said that nothing was going to change on this site when they put there thread up, i know in my personal email, they said the site was staying how it was, so if its true and it is up for sale, how can they promise that the site is staying how it is ???? I'm all for change etc, but surely that's misleading, confused, LOL :-)

Well thats several different sources I've now heard from about it being up for sale. They are obviously going to commericalise it more if so, the article in your family tree was quoted by the Chief Executive for Friends. Altogether sounds like a much bigger concern now, than the friendly homey business started up in the back bedroom. It's big business now and their aim is obviously to make more money. I would say that would more likely be the reason for the boards going intime.

Someone in my family just told me that they heard on the radio news today that friends it will be sold this weekend, so maybe g/r is either with that or it will be a separate sale for g/r ???, I do believe that in time if not this weekend it will be sold and the boards will be moved to connections, that's what i believe in, just mu opinion :-)

Bloss did it say the friends site though or genes? must admit i havent read it, its only what people have said, wow 150 million, bet they feel great :-) i would LOL

Article I read about 5 weeks ago said the company (friends and genes) was worth about £130m. So if thats to be believed I would say the group as a whole has been sold. Very strange as the article I read called The Modest Millionaires re the Pankhursts only about 2 months ago practically said they would not sell. Maybe the 50 strong management company they brought in to manage it all has ideas they don't want to go along with?? Lets face it we wil never know. I don't suppose we will get a newsletter telling us it's been sold or what they intend doing.

Hi diane as i was waiting for any reply, i did a google search and and fount this, its for this month Reunion website FriendsReunited is in talks which could lead to its sale. The company is talking to at least five firms about its future. Michael Murphy, CEO of Friends Reunited said: “Profits are expected to be £6.5 million for 2005 and over £8 million in 06. “As a result of this performance and the Group’s prospects, we can confirm that the company has recently received a number of credible approaches from large media groups and internet players. A spokeswoman for the company confirmed it is talking to at least five possible bidders. Friends Reunited has appointed financial advisors Long Acre to help with negotiations. Talks could lead to an outright sale or the sale of a significant stake in the business. The site claims 12m members. It was started by Steve and Julie Pankhurst in a spare bedroom in 2000 and quickly became very popular. They still own 30 per cent of the business, which the Times estimates could be worth £120m. Last year marriage guidance group Relate blamed it, and similar sites, for fuelling divorce by making it easier for people to get in touch with old flames. The site has become a first stop for journalists seeking background information on the newly-famous. And the police have found it useful too - a man from Teeseide was convicted of drug offences after bragging to old school mates about how much cash he was making selling cocaine. Alongside its school reunion site the company has opened dating, geneaology and jobs sites Must admit, i did think they were all separate sites, even though they are sister sites, :-)

I think the lots going, I will be very surprised if there aren't some big changes.

True Diane, this is a business after all i suppose. time will tell, after the weekend if the sale goes through im sure we will be reading about it. I always believe that there is always some truth in rumours, so we'll see LOL :-)

Interesting reading! My membership's up for renewal at the end of next month and I'm now debating as to whether to bother. I don't like the layout of the new Connections section and the site has gone drastically downhill over the last few months. Its no longer the friendly atmospheric site that it was, its becoming more and more like the other stiff and formal genealogy sites. When I joined 2yrs ago, it was a fun place to be. Now you're terrified of saying or doing the wrong thing in case the people in GR's pocket tell tales on you and if the site is to be sold and there are more changes to be made....in my opinion, its only going to get worse

Never thought of it like that Lou, good point really, makes one think :-)

Hey Ted If you want my £7.50 donation toward buying this site its all yours!!! Would be nice to donate my cash to someone who actually cares!!! Way to go Ted!!! Karen

Those of you who use this site as the sole location for all your hard-researched data beware: make sure that you download your tree to a Gedcom, and store it somewhere safe (on floppy disk or CD) ... If this site suddenly disappears overnight, then so does your tree!

How many members are there now? I wonder if it would be feasible to buy them out between us all or do you reckon seeing as we are the ones who actually made the site a success that we are all due a windfall?

pmsl Heather that would be a rush job considering it suppose to happen this weekend, LOL. would be funny and we would most likely hit the headlines. I think the sale goes through this weekend so im sure all the paper work etc must have been done for a while, could be wrong though as im not sure on things like this. I'm lucky if anything does happen im a member somewhere else, so it wont affect me to great, but others will feel it if all the rumours are true. time will tell :-)

Article I read in Your Family Tree has the chief executive saying there are 3.2 million members.