A subsidiary of Scottish newspaper publisher DC Thomson today confirmed it has purchased the troubled Friends Reunited website for £25m.

The site, originally set up as a way of putting old school friends back in touch with other, was purchased by ITV for £175m in 2003.

But the TV giant has now had to offload it for a fraction of that price to help stem mounting losses.

It has been bought by brightsolid.com, the digital arm of DC Thomson which also owns the Press and Journal, Aberdeen, and other Scottish regional titles.

Although it has been eclipsed by Facebook, Friends Reunited still has 9m members worldwide and, together with its genealogy and dating companion sites, attracts 3m unique users a month.

Brightsolid said today that the acquisition will create Britain’s leading genealogy business by bringing together Genes Reunited, findmypast.com, which operates the official 1901 and 1911 Census websites, and ScotlandsPeople.

Chief executive Chris van der Kuyl 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.

“This also marks another step forward in the future strategy of brightsolid, widening its offering to the consumer marketplace, in particular by creating Britain’s leading genealogy business.”

Andy Baker, managing director of Friends Reunited added: “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.”