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- guardian.co.uk, Wednesday May 21 2008 17.24 BST
ITV has hired Trinity Mirror executive Andy Baker to be the managing director of Friends Reunited, as the departing management of the social networking website share a multimillion-pound earn-out bonanza.
The broadcaster acquired Friends Reunited in 2005 for an initial £120m in cash and a three-year performance-based earn-out deal worth up to a maximum of £55m. It is understood that all of the performance targets have been achieved.
It is also understood that the three co-owners of Friends Reunited - chief executive Michael Murphy, marketing director Tim Ward and financial director Rob Mogford - will leave their management positions at the end of the year as multimillionaires, after adding the final tranche of earn-out money to their previous payments from ITV.
Baker, the group director of digital recruitment at Trinity Mirror, will take the role of managing director of the Friends Reunited group.
He will report to the ITV chief operating officer, Ben McOwen Wilson, when he joins in the summer and will be responsible for the websites Friends Reunited, Genes Reunited and Friends Reunited Dating.
After Baker's arrival Murphy will take a non-executive director role at Friends Reunited, while Ward will move to a marketing role at ITV Consumer to assist with the "proposition development of all ITV's online properties". Mogford will leave his job as finance director at the end of the year.
"There have been some significant changes to the Friends Reunited website recently," said Jeff Henry, the managing director of ITV Consumer, referring to last month's move to drop the website's pay wall in favour of a free model.
"We hope that this new look site will help ITV to build its online presence and make the transition from traditional broadcaster to a multimedia content provider."
Friends Reunited was founded in 2000 by Jason Porter and Steve Pankhurst, who handed over day-to-day running of the business to Murphy, Ward and Mogford in 2003.
The co-founders left the business in 2005 when ITV acquired Friends Reunited.
"I would like to take this opportunity to thank Michael, Tim, Rob and the Friends Reunited team for their hard work over the past three years," said Henry.
"They have continued to build the incredible strength and breadth of the brand, grown the membership to 21 million and nearly trebled its profits."
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