THE publisher of The Sunday Post newspaper may be prevented from an attempt to purchase the website, Friends Reunited.
In August, a subsidiary of DC Thomson looked set to buy the site from ITV for £25 million; four years ago, ITV paid £120 million, plus bonuses, for it.
But competition watchdog, the Office of Fair Trading, wants to investigate whether Brightsolid’s acquisition of Friends Reunited would result in it having too much control of the online genealogy research market.
Brightsolid already has findmypast.com and 1911Census.com and part of Friends Reunited is Genes Reunited, with millions of members.
The main competition is understood to be Ancestry.co.uk.
