General Chat

Alter Ego The Company may be overvalued but I can't agree FR or GR have ponced on us if I thought that I wouldn't be still a member, for the price of a year's subscription I think it's good value. I haven't been as successful as a lot of others but I have found distant rellies in NZ and West Midlands which I never thought would happen and may never have happened if I hadn't been a member of this site :-) I agree with you Lynda ;-) I wish I had come up with the idea really it's a simple one nearly all the most successful and best ideas are simple ones. I would not begrudge the Pankhursts their money and wish them well in their future. Pat x

How on earth can there be 12 million registered users? I know of one family alone that somehow have 12 accounts with this site,but only one of the family actually uses the site!! Try any name search and very soon youll see exactly the same entries multiplied many times by the same tree owner.

Evening all. I saw this news item on the bbc website today. I agree with one member who said it is the members who make the site. If ITV end up buying it i feel a lot will change including membership price. I havent been a member that long, but it has made my family tree searching worth every second and its all down to the great people on this site. Thanks one and all and lets hope if the owners do sell then we dont get sold also. deb :-)

If you read this and thought - 'So what!' Then read the following extract from the terms and conditions to which we all agreed when we signed up: 'By submitting any material to the content to the Genes Reunited Service, you: are representing that you are fully entitled to do so; grant us a non-exclusive, royalty-free, non-terminable licence to copy, modify, distribute, show in public and create derivative works from that material in any form, anywhere; and authorise us to adapt the relevant material in the course of doing so, and so waive your moral rights to object to any derogatory treatment, or to be identified as the author, of the material in question.' Bob

Never have i seen a company so overvalued/misvalued prior to sale. The value is based on the information we all supplied,Genes merely provide the mechanism to share it-talk to any website provider /designer and they could set up such a network for thousands,not millions. The site and any success it gains has been the result of all us entering information that we paid for in time and money in research site subscriptions,and the reputation built up by individuals giving up their time and money to volunteer help to others-Genes havent paid anyof us to provide this help. They have simply ponced off us,and are cashing us in. If people withdrew their volunteered help,and kept their tree on a disc elsewhere,this site would not even be worth one million,never mind 120. If the true stats re the names enterd on the database were known,ie more likely to be less than 20 million,not 43 million,due to a lot of bogus and multiple entries,and entries relating to members no longer active on this site,would the value have been reassessed???

Beat me to it Bob!!! I read that on teletext just now!! Just hope they don't put adverts on here too, slow enough site as it is!!!!! lol :0) Joan

ITV 'eyes up Friends Reunited' ITV boss Charles Allen is keen to diversify as ad revenues are weak Broadcaster ITV is hotly tipped to be nearing a takeover deal for Friends Reunited, the website which brings together old school friends. According to press reports, ITV is examining the company's books and could sign a deal as early as this week with an estimated price tag of £120m. If an agreement is signed, husband and wife founders Steve and Julie Pankhurst could net about £30m between them. ITV and Friends Reunited declined to comment on speculation about a deal. The website has more than 12 million registered users and profits have ballooned as the business expanded to offer genealogy and internet dating services as well. Branching out Created by the merger of Carlton and Granada last year, ITV controls more than half of the UK television advertising market. It is believed that Friends Reunited has attracted strong interest from traditional media companies keen to develop more platforms in order to bolster sagging advertising revenues. BT, News Corporation and Daily Mail & General Trust are also rumoured to be in the running to bid for Friends.

In the news today